Medics beg for help as Iraqis die needlessly

[cal04]

Half of all deaths preventable, say country's medics
Reconstruction seen as disaster
More than 2,000 doctors and nurses are killed
18,000 more leave the nation
Even the most basic treatments are lacking
The disintegration of Iraq's health service is leaving its civilians defenceless in the continuing violence that is rocking the country, Iraqi doctors warn today.

As many as half of the civilian deaths, calculated at 655,000 since the 2003 invasion, might have been avoided if proper medical care had been provided to the victims, they say.

In separate appeals, the doctors beg for help to stem the soaring death rate and ease the suffering of injured families and children. They say governments and the international medical community are ignoring their plight.

In the first 14 months after the 2003 invasion almost $20bn (£11bn) was spent on reconstruction by the British and American funds, including hundreds of millions on rebuilding and re-equipping the country's network of 180 hospitals and clinics.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1904962.ece
OMG

[Erika]

1. I remember a pic showing Christ crying tear drops

and I'm not even a religious person. No wonder we are seen as ogres by the world. Not only did W and his supporters destroy Iraq, they destroyed its people.

[pooja]

2. I do believe they are destroying each other. They don't even

see that they are being played. They don't understand unification and that a whole country does better than separate peices... of course the USA doesn't understand that very well right now either... and Bush hasn't exactly been a unifier for this country or this world in a time where it is so desperately needed.

[Erika]

3. Again, there is no such thing as an Iraqi, it was political

Saddam held the religious tribes together because he ran a secular government with a heavy hand. W tried to sell Saddam as an extremist. He was not. He was secular and only a tin horn dictator. But he did the job.

Now W has decided to add Iraq as a new state?

[pooja]

4. They are a country defined by the world.. If they don't want it, they

won't have it... Again, they need to grow up over there and get over centuries of war.