Bush's Iraq: death and greed

[ProSense]

Andrew Greeley

Who grieves for dead Iraqis?

July 28, 2006

BY ANDREW GREELEY

What is the worth of a single Iraqi life?

The New York Times reported that during recent months a hundred Iraqis die violently every day, 3,000 every month. In terms of size of population, that is the equivalent of 300,000 Americans a month, 10,000 every day. Yet the typical television clip on the evening news -- an explosion, automatic weapon fire, dead bodies on the streets -- has become as much a cliche as the weather report or another loss by the Cubs. The dead Iraqis are of no more value to us than artificial humans in video games. The Iraqis seem less than human, pajama-wearing people with dark skin, hate in their eyes, and a weird religion, screaming in pain over their losses. Weep with them, weep for them?

Why bother?

Rarely do Americans tell themselves that the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, is responsible for this slaughter. In a spasm of arrogance and power, we destroyed their political and social structure and are now unable to protect them from one another. Their blood is on the hands of our leaders who launched a war on false premises, without adequate forces, without plans for the time after the war and then sent in inept administrators who could not provide even a hint of adequate public services.

Snip...

There was, therefore, no just cause, no attempt to exhaust all possible alternatives short of war, no real hope for victory, no postwar plan, and no ability to prevent the postwar butchery that was easily predictable to those who understood Iraq. The war leaped from slogan to slogan -- weapons of mass destruction, the critical front in the global war on terror, stay the course, freedom and democracy in Iraq. All these slogans are false.

Were America's leaders deliberately lying? Did they really believe that the Shiites and the Sunnis would not murder one another, or did they know better? One must leave the state of their consciences to God. However, they should have known, and in the objective order, they are criminally responsible for the hundred deaths every day. They should be tried for their crimes, not that such trials are possible in our country.

Snip...

How would you feel if the street were drenched with the blood of your son or daughter, if your father was in the hospital with his legs blown off?

We cannot permit ourselves to grieve for Iraqi pain because then we would weep bitter and guilty tears every day.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel28.html

U.S. Neglect Found in Long-Delayed Iraq Hospital Project

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 29, 2006; Page A06

The U.S. Agency for International Development failed to adequately monitor a critical hospital project in southern Iraq that ran badly behind schedule and significantly over budget, government auditors concluded in a report released yesterday.

The hospital, intended to be a 50-bed facility that would provide urgently needed medical care to women and children in the city of Basra, was originally supposed to cost the government $50 million and be completed by the end of 2005. But auditors now say the hospital will cost up to $169 million and will not be finished until late next year -- if at all.

Snip...

As recently as April, USAID was reporting the project to be on time and on budget, even though the contractor, Bechtel National Inc., had by then determined it would actually be 273 days late and $48 million over the expected cost.

Snip...

The project, which has been championed in speeches by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush, is just one of many in Iraq that have failed to meet expectations as the U.S. role in reconstruction winds down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/28/AR2006072802138.html?nav=rss_world/mideast