Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[seabass]

>>>Their eight day visit and upbeat assessment ignores other plausible explanations<<<


It also ignores the fact that Iraq for all practical purposes has been destroyed and has been abandoned by most people who make up a civil and viable society. So what if there's nominal progress here and there? All that's left is a giant oil field and millions of welfare candidates. What's the value of "victory" here?




"Here's a very tragic story, Wolf. Eight million Iraqis -- that is about one third of the population of that country -- have no water, sanitation, food or shelter and need emergency aid. Now, this isn't some report from Nancy Pelosi's office or some left-wing ideologue. This was done and compiled nationwide in Iraq by two major relief agencies.

The report says the violence in Iraq is masking a humanitarian crisis that has worsened since the U.S. invasion and addressing thing crisis could make the other crisis worse.

Among other findings in this report, 70 percent of Iraqis like access to adequate water supplies. Ninety percent of the country's hospitals lack basic medical and surgical supplies. Forty-three percent of Iraqis live in absolute poverty. That's defined as less than $1 a day. And more than half of them don't have a job. Child malnutrition rates are at 28 percent, up from 19 percent before the U.S. invasion. And there are two million internally displaced people, many of them with no access to food. Another two million are refugees that have gone to other countries.

This report suggests that Iraq's government, along with coalition nations, U.N. agencies and international donors, can and must do a lot more to attack this problem.

However, don't expect any immediate response from members of the Iraqi government. You see, they're on vacation. They left today for a month long summer recess. No doubt they'll have plenty to eat and drink, too, while they're away on holiday.

Here's the question -- what does it say about the state of Iraq if almost a third of the population has no water, sanitation, food or shelter?

E-mail [e-mail] or go to cnn.com/caffertyfile.

You don't hear a whole lot about that part of the story -- Wolf.

BLITZER: You know...

CAFFERTY: It's horrible.

BLITZER: ...and you don't hear a lot. But you mentioned it -- four million refugees. Four million people displaced from their homes. Two million have left the country. Two million are roaming around elsewhere. And what's really happened, if you take a close look at this, there has been this ethnic cleansing in a lot of parts.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes.

BLITZER: The Shiite neighborhoods, the Sunnis left. Sunni neighborhoods, the Shiites have left, because it's simply too dangerous.

CAFFERTY: Yes. And a lot of people left the country of their own volition. Many of the intellectuals, the college professors doctors, scientists, those who had the means to get out left a long time ago. And the brain drain on that country has been enormous as a result. There's nobody left in that country except people living at or below the poverty line -- refugees, fighters, soldiers and terrorists. I don't know what else is left there."

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/30/sitroom.02.html