[Mb-civic] Let Them Eat Bombs....

[Bahram Maskanian]

  Let Them Eat Bombs

The doubling of child malnutrition in Iraq is baffling

Terry Jones - Tuesday April 12, 2005 - The Guardian

A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that 
Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they 
are now.

This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like 
George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best 
when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and 
blow up hospitals, schools and power stations.

It now appears that, far from improving the quality of life for Iraqi 
youngsters, the US-led military assault on Iraq has inexplicably doubled 
the number of children under five suffering from malnutrition. Under 
Saddam, about 4% of children under five were going hungry, whereas by 
the end of last year almost 8% were suffering.

These results are even more disheartening for those of us in the 
Department of Making Things Better for Children in the Middle East By 
Military Force, since the previous attempts by Britain and America to 
improve the lot of Iraqi children also proved disappointing. For 
example, the policy of applying the most draconian sanctions in living 
memory totally failed to improve conditions. After they were imposed in 
1990, the number of children under five who died increased by a factor 
of six. By 1995 something like half a million Iraqi children were dead 
as a result of our efforts to help them.

A year later, Madeleine Albright, then the US ambassador to the United 
Nations, tried to put a brave face on it. When a TV interviewer remarked 
that more children had died in Iraq through sanctions than were killed 
in Hiroshima, Mrs. Albright famously replied: "We think the price is 
worth it."

But clearly George Bush didn't. So he hit on the idea of bombing them 
instead. And not just bombing, but capturing and torturing their 
fathers, humiliating their mothers, shooting at them from road blocks - 
but none of it seems to do any good. Iraqi children simply refuse to be 
better nourished, healthier and less inclined to die. It is truly baffling.

And this is why we at the department are appealing to you - the general 
public - for ideas. If you can think of any other military techniques 
that we have so far failed to apply to the children of Iraq, please let 
us know as a matter of urgency. We assure you that, under our present 
leadership, there is no limit to the amount of money we are prepared to 
invest in a military solution to the problems of Iraqi children.

In the UK there may now be 3.6 million children living below the poverty 
line, and 12.9 million in the US, with no prospect of either government 
finding any cash to change that. But surely this is a price worth 
paying, if it means that George Bush and Tony Blair can make any amount 
of money available for bombs, shells and bullets to improve the lives of 
Iraqi kids. You know it makes sense.

Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python. He is the author of 
Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1457630,00.html

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