The DISH

Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use

Vol. 14 No. 50…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…December 14, 2011

Venue for an Artist

Tribute to Fallujah

By Bryan Newman

Before you think we are helping out in Iraq

look at the terror we caused

it would put you in shock.

They aren't Hadjis those are human beings

Turn off the news because that shit is deceiving

Look in the eyes of the people weeping

Their family is dead

Depleted uranium got the rest

Now her kids got severe birth defects

Imagine your infant born with two heads

250,000 Iraqis fled

With just the clothes on their back they left

This is Fallujah with tons of toxic uranium waste

Could you even look in their face?

They are only Arabs you might say

But what about US veterans affected

Walking around in our country today

Have you heard the gruesome tales of agent orange

Seen the pictures of the babies born deformed?

Compare the pictures you would have to be blind to say

Depleted uranium isn't the agent orange of this war today

Pictures speak a thousand words

So let me paint the scene

Giant lumps swallowing Iraqi baby's hands and feet

Its face warped and weird so sad to see

Don't let your patriotism blind you from the tragedy

Another infant with a tiny jaw and chin then inflated forehead

Won't get to grow up and soon will be dead

Baby boy with lumps on his face the size of golf balls

The sights make my heart sink and drop

Six tiny fingers on a hand with giant palms

What would you think

Seeing a toddler with a stomach the size of pregnancy

A mother watching that come out of her womb

I can't imagine the screams

Not to mention all the pain caused by Willy Pete

We dropped WP on Fallujah's streets

Not only causing burns to the bone 3rd. degree

But also medical problems that you couldn't believe

You know Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cancer rates in Fallujah are about the same

Do you find it shocking?

This is just one city one small snippet of this terrible war

How much agony do we have to cause before we can take no more

The occupation is worse than Saddam ever was can't you see

We aren't liberating

The people are not free

Yet, we blindly follow the flag

And cause terror in the name of democracy

About Me: I love art, poetry, and self expression. I am into activism. I sometimes make political points in my drawings and rap lyrics. Other than art, I am strongly interested in people's emotions and helping people. I am JestertheArtist. You can read more of my work at http://allpoetry.com/JesterTheArtist

DISHing It Up Hot!

On War at X-Mas!

By Dot

Like clockwork, it never fails; depression sets in right after Thanksgiving. I suppose it has something to do with my impoverished childhood. Poverty is a daily struggle for the underprivileged, but Christmas exacts its on special hardship, making the season stressful and far more difficult to handle than the rest of the year. Despite the few classics shown on television that celebrate giving, X-Mas in America is all about excess and getting. We are bombarded with the images of grand holiday celebrations and wishes that come true. Imagine the disappointment when Santa fails to make his magical appearance down that non-existent chimney. Poor children are left out in the cold, receiving the proverbial lump of coal, even when they have been good.

With that as a backdrop, is it any wonder that growing up in the land of plenty and experiencing its underbelly while being programmed to believe in White X-Mas and Santa Claus that one can be left confounded and confused? Top that off with the reality of war, sickness, death and dying, no wonder one feels like crying.

I try to pull myself out of the morass, knowing the season of "peace and goodwill" will not last. Alas, it is made exceptionally difficult in a nation where hypocrisy rules. The individual must hold conflicting notions simultaneously. For example, X-Mas is a celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace, yet war is the path to peace. Truth is, the US is a warmongering republic cloaked in the garments of a peace-loving democracy. It is ruled by a few greedy individuals who do not mind killing millions of people to secure oil, pipelines, a drug market, or any other natural resource for power and profits.

Making these sociopaths particularly lethal is the most advanced military apparatus known to man at their disposal. And, it only requires a relatively few volunteer soldiers and some high-tech mercenaries to carry out their deadly missions of rape and pillage. The rest of the citizens are only required to give the rulers free reign, be quiet and shop until they drop in cyberspace or malls across America.

As one might expect from heartless hypocrites, once a soldier has served his tour, been wounded or can no longer function in the desired capacity, he/she is discarded like the X-Mas wrapping on Boxing Day. It ought to be illegal to treat people this way, but those in charge make the laws, so there you have it. The truth can be and often is brutal.

Even at X-Mas, the US is at war; it's a never-ending story. The US is engaged in a war on terror. The barbarity of what its military does to defeat terror is best exemplified by the devastation of Fallujah, Iraq. With collective amnesia, we pretend not to know about the US reign of terror, but our soldiers can never forget how the US military used depleted uranium munitions, white phosphorus and other weapons of mass destruction to "pacify" that city of more than 200 mosques. Is it any wonder that they suffer with post traumatic stress? Having to digest the lies of their leaders with regard to why they are in some foreign nation killing men, women and children, who have done nothing to them, is enough to drive a growing number to suicide. Divorce, homicide, unemployment and homelessness dog our veterans, exacting an unknown toll on military families.

Victims of their success on the battlefield, many of our soldiers are sick, plagued with unexplained illnesses that Veteran Administration (VA) doctors fail to diagnose and treat. Like bad memories that stick, the fallout that coated Fallujah's residents fell on US soldiers. What breathing depleted uranium and other pollutants of war has done to them and their offspring is another dirty little secret of the war on terror.

This X-Mas, I will not be disillusioned, expecting, nay hoping, my country will live up to its billing as a peace-loving nation. I know better. Nor will I expect Santa to provide holiday cheer for all the poor little children around the world. I will, however, pray for peace and hope people in the US and worldwide will seek enlightenment, awake and act less like sheep for the greedy bastards that see us as fodder for endless war.

News You Use

'Worse than Hiroshima'

By Patrick Cockburn

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.

Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighboring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

Dr Chris Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster and one of the authors of the survey of 4,800 individuals in Fallujah, said it is difficult to pin down the exact cause of the cancers and birth defects. He added that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened".

US Marines first besieged and bombarded Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, in April 2004 after four employees of the American security company Blackwater were killed and their bodies burned. After an eight-month stand-off, the Marines stormed the city in November using artillery and aerial bombing against rebel positions. US forces later admitted that they had employed white phosphorus as well as other munitions.

In the assault US commanders largely treated Fallujah as a free-fire zone to try to reduce casualties among their own troops. British officers were appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties. "During preparatory operations in the November 2004 Fallujah clearance operation, on one night over 40 155mm artillery rounds were fired into a small sector of the city," recalled Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a British commander serving with the American forces in Baghdad.

He added that the US commander who ordered this devastating use of firepower did not consider it significant enough to mention it in his daily report to the US general in command. Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, the extent of genetic damage suffered by inhabitants suggests the use of uranium in some form. He said: "My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside."

The survey was carried out by a team of 11 researchers in January and February this year who visited 711 houses in Fallujah. A questionnaire was filled in by householders giving details of cancers, birth outcomes and infant mortality. Hitherto the Iraqi government has been loath to respond to complaints from civilians about damage to their health during military operations.

Researchers were initially regarded with some suspicion by locals, particularly after a Baghdad television station broadcast a report saying a survey was being carried out by terrorists and anybody conducting it or answering questions would be arrested. Those organizing the survey subsequently arranged to be accompanied by a person of standing in the community to allay suspicions.

The study, entitled "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009", is by Dr Busby, Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi, and concludes that anecdotal evidence of a sharp rise in cancer and congenital birth defects is correct. Infant mortality was found to be 80 per 1,000 births compared to 19 in Egypt, 17 in Jordan and 9.7 in Kuwait. The report says that the types of cancer are "similar to that in the Hiroshima survivors who were exposed to ionizing radiation from the bomb and uranium in the fallout".

Researchers found a 38-fold increase in leukemia, a ten-fold increase in female breast cancer and significant increases in lymphoma and brain tumours in adults. At Hiroshima survivors showed a 17-fold increase in leukemia, but in Fallujah Dr Busby says what is striking is not only the greater prevalence of cancer but the speed with which it was affecting people.

Of particular significance was the finding that the sex ratio between newborn boys and girls had changed. In a normal population this is 1,050 boys born to 1,000 girls, but for those born from 2005 there was an 18 per cent drop in male births, so the ratio was 850 males to 1,000 females. The sex-ratio is an indicator of genetic damage that affects boys more than girls. A similar change in the sex-ratio was discovered after Hiroshima.

The US cut back on its use of firepower in Iraq from 2007 because of the anger it provoked among civilians. But at the same time there has been a decline in healthcare and sanitary conditions in Iraq since 2003. The impact of war on civilians was more severe in Fallujah than anywhere else in Iraq because the city continued to be blockaded and cut off from the rest of the country long after 2004. War damage was only slowly repaired and people from the city were frightened to go to hospitals in Baghdad because of military checkpoints on the road into the capital.

Note: This article, whose full title is "Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah 'Worse than Hiroshima'," appeared in The Independent on July 24 2010; it is available and online at www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html#. Since then, Samira Alaani, Muhammed Tafash, Christopher Busby, Malak Hamdan and Eleonore Blaurock-Busch have published an update to the study referenced in this article. "Uranium and other contaminants in hair from the parents of children with congenital anomalies in Fallujah, Iraq" appears in the September 2, 2011 issue of Conflict and Health at www.conflictandhealth.com/content/5/1/15. In addition to reading this study, all Americans should see the video Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre, which is available at www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm.

Bit of History

Dr. Helen Mary Broinowski Caldicott

"Your tax dollars should be used for you and your children-and not to build bombs to blow up the Earth."

Helen Mary Broinowski was born in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, August 7, 1938. The eldest of three children born to Theo Philip Broinowski, a factory manager, and Mary Mona Enyd Coffey Broinowski, an interior designer, Helen decided at an early age that she wanted to help people. One of only a few women accepted into the Medical School at the University of Adelaide in 1956, Helen received her medical degree in 1961. She married William Caldicott, a fellow doctor and activist that shared her passion for helping people.

In 1966, the Caldicotts moved to the US, where Helen became an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, specializing in cystic fibrosis - a life-threatening disease of the lungs and digestive system. She also worked on the staff of the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. She resigned in the 1980s to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war.

In 1971, Dr. Caldicott joined with others in forcing France to end its nuclear atmospheric testing over the Pacific Atoll of Mururoa. Four years later, she helped Australian unions educate members about the health dangers posed by producing nuclear fuel, particularly uranium mining. She founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Adelaide Children's Hospital (1975).

In 1978, Dr. Caldicott co-founded the Physicians Social Responsibility (PSR), an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating others about the dangers of nuclear power, weapons and war. Dr. Caldicott also helped to start similar groups worldwide. The PSR umbrella group - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War- won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. In 1980, Dr. Caldicott founded the Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND), a leading member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Dr. Caldicott returned to her native Australia in 1987 to run for Federal Parliament as an independent candidate. She lost in the general election by 600 votes.

She was awarded the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom in 2003, and in 2006, the Peace Organisation of Australia presented her with the inaugural Australian Peace Prize "for her longstanding commitment to raising awareness about the medical and environmental hazards of the nuclear age". The Smithsonian Institution named Caldicott one of the most influential women of the 20th century. In 2009, she was designated a Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project.

Winner of numerous prizes, awards and honorary degrees, Dr. Caldicott has written extensively on nuclear dangers. Her books include Nuclear Madness (1979), Missile Envy (1984), which blames the arms race on Western civilization's repressed sexual urges, and The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush's Military Industrial Complex (2002), her sixth book.

While touring with The New Nuclear Danger, Dr. Caldicott founded the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, headquartered in Washington, DC. The organization seeks to facilitate an ongoing public education campaign in the mainstream media about what it perceives as the dangers of nuclear energy, including weapons and power programs and policies.

Since 14 July 2008, Dr. Caldicott has hosted an hour-long, weekly radio program, "If You Love This Planet." The show can be heard on dozens of U.S., Australian and Canadian stations, and on its website www.ifyoulovethisplanet.org.

She has been the subject of films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award (1982), and If You Love This Planet, academy award winner in 1983 for best documentary and "Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space," a feature documentary. Dr. Caldicott currently divides her time between the USA and Australia and continues to lecture widely to promote her views on nuclear energy use, including weapons and power. (Sources: www.wic.org/bio/caldicot.htm, www.nonradiation.org/caldicott/bio.html, http://www.helencaldicott.com/, and www.nuclearpolicy.org)

Intuit's Vibe

After Fukushima: Enough Is Enough

By Helen Caldicott

The nuclear power industry has been resurrected over the past decade by a lobbying campaign that has left many people believing it to be a clean, green, emission-free alternative to fossil fuels. These beliefs pose an extraordinary threat to global public health and encourage a major financial drain on national economies and taxpayers. The commitment to nuclear power as an environmentally safe energy source has also stifled the mass development of alternative technologies that are far cheaper, safer and almost emission free -- the future for global energy.

When the Fukushima Daiichi reactors suffered meltdowns in March, literally in the backyard of an unsuspecting public, the stark reality that the risks of nuclear power far outweigh any benefits should have become clear to the world. As the old quip states, "Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water."

Instead, the nuclear industry has used the disaster to increase its already extensive lobbying efforts. A few nations vowed to phase out nuclear energy after the disaster. But many others have remained steadfast in their commitment. That has left millions of innocent people unaware that they -- all of us -- may face a medical catastrophe beyond all proportions in the wake of Fukushima and through the continued widespread use of nuclear energy.

The world was warned of the dangers of nuclear accidents, when Chernobyl exploded and lofted radioactive poisons into the atmosphere. Those poisons "rained out," creating hot spots over the Northern Hemisphere. Research by scientists in Eastern Europe, collected and published by the New York Academy of Sciences, estimates that 40 percent of the European land mass is now contaminated with cesium 137 and other radioactive poisons that will concentrate in food for hundreds to thousands of years. Wide areas of Asia -- from Turkey to China -- the United Arab Emirates, North Africa and North America are also contaminated. Nearly 200 million people remain exposed.

That research estimated that by now close to 1 million people have died of causes linked to the Chernobyl disaster. They perished from cancers, congenital deformities, immune deficiencies, infections, cardiovascular diseases, endocrine abnormalities and radiation-induced factors that increased infant mortality. Studies in Belarus found that in 2000, 14 years after the Chernobyl disaster, fewer than 20 percent of children were considered "practically healthy," compared to 90 percent before Chernobyl. Now, Fukushima has been called the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl. Much is still uncertain about the long-term consequences. Fukushima may well be on par with or even far exceed Chernobyl in terms of the effects on public health, as new information becomes available. The crisis is ongoing; the plant remains unstable and radiation emissions continue into the air and water.

Many thousands of people continue to inhabit areas that are highly contaminated, particularly northwest of Fukushima. Radioactive elements have been deposited throughout northern Japan, found in tap water in Tokyo and concentrated in tea, beef, rice and other food. In one of the few studies on human contamination in the months following the accident, over half of the more than 1,000 children whose thyroids were monitored in Fukushima City were found to be contaminated with iodine 131 -- condemning many to thyroid cancer years from now.

Children are innately sensitive to the carcinogenic effects of radiation, fetuses even more so. Like Chernobyl, the accident at Fukushima is of global proportions. Unusual levels of radiation have been discovered in British Columbia, along the West Coast and East Coast of the United States and in Europe, and heavy contamination has been found in oceanic waters.

After the accident, lobbying groups touted improved safety at nuclear installations globally. In Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. -- which operates the Fukushima Daiichi reactors -- and the government have sought to control the reporting of negative stories via telecom companies and Internet service providers.

In Britain, The Guardian reported that days after the tsunami, companies with interests in nuclear power -- Areva, EDF Energy and Westinghouse -- worked with the government to downplay the accident, fearing setbacks on plans for new nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power has always been the nefarious Trojan horse for the weapons industry, and effective publicity campaigns are a hallmark of both industries. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are one and the same technology. A 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor generates 600 pounds or so of plutonium per year: An atomic bomb requires a fraction of that amount for fuel, and plutonium remains radioactive for 250,000 years. Therefore every country with a nuclear power plant also has a bomb factory with unlimited potential. The nuclear power industry sets an unforgivable precedent by exporting nuclear technology -- bomb factories -- to dozens of non-nuclear nations.

Why is nuclear power still viable, after we've witnessed catastrophic accidents, enormous financial outlays, weapons proliferation and nuclear-waste induced epidemics of cancers and genetic disease for generations to come? Simply put, many government and other officials believe the nuclear industry mantra: safe, clean and green. And the public is not educated on the issue. Read the full article online at http://www.helencaldicott.com/)

Hood Notes

Tackling Veteran Suicides

On December 5, 2011, René Campos, Deputy Director of Government Relations for the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) testified before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health. According to Campos, a decade of war has placed unprecedented demands and stressors on the US military personnel and their families. The demand of multiple tours and the stressors of war will challenge health systems serving the military for generations to come.

Campos emphasized that MOAA is especially concerned about the growing need to address mental health, behavioral and cognitive conditions in light of rising rates of suicides, alcohol and substance abuse, and other emotional issues playing out after 10 years of war among veterans, service members and their families.

Campos declared, "Eighteen veterans commit suicide every day. That is one every 80 minutes. Twenty percent of all suicides in the US are former service members. The current statistics are disturbing and point to an even greater need to wage an all out battle to end suicide."

Even with the disturbing statistics that are available, "it is very challenging to determine an exact number of suicides. Some troops who return from deployment become stronger from having survived their experiences. Too many others are wracked by memories of what they have experienced. This translates into extreme issues and risk-taking behaviors when they return home, which is why veteran suicides have attracted so much attention in the media. Many times, suicides are not reported, and it can be very difficult to determine whether or not a particular individual's death was intentional."

She continued, "What is required is a sustained national commitment at all levels of government to help veterans cope with the psychological and traumatic conditions that threaten their well-being and that of their families."

Campos concluded, "MOAA believes Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) must improve how they work together to achieve recommended actions and reduce the shocking suicide statistics of those who have served our nation." To aid in this process, Campos offered three MOAA specific recommendations to address current barriers to veterans' health care.

(1) Establish a single strategy and suicide prevention office between VA and DOD reporting directly to Department Secretaries through the Senior Oversight Committee.

(2) Expand VA mental health capacity and capability to improve access and delivery of quality and timely care and information.

(3) Improve enrollment of all eligible veterans in VA health care, especially those in the Guard and Reserve, rural areas and high-risk populations by communicating better to reach them and help them understand how to use available services.

A fourth recommendation not included in the MOAA testimony would be an end to war.

Disgruntled says: I really do not want to talk about Alec Baldwin, who recently got thrown off a plane for refusing to stop playing a game, or the dog that got rescued and adopted, but these "news stories" received more coverage in mainstream media than the mother of two who shot her children and killed herself because she was unable to provide documentation to qualify for food stamps. Sure this tragedy was mentioned in the 24-hour news cycle, but there has been no in-depth analysis of what drove this mother to commit such a heinous act. I am certain it was an act of desperation, a cry for help. But, what drove her to this place? And, going forward, how do we, as a society, prevent it from happening to another family? These are the questions we ought to be exploring, not who adopted the dog or the name of Baldwin's playmate.

Disgruntled wants to know: I watch children, including my grandchildren, play violent video games, blowing up things and killing "bad" guys. They seem to relish the action. The winner is invariably the one with the most practice, an agile mind and quick fingers; pressing keys and racking up points. Press the red button and the game starts over. Children and many adults can play video games for hours and no one gets hurt, except homework, grades and the possibility of them becoming desensitized to the whole notion of taking a life. But, it's a game. You can push a button to start over or simply unplug the thing, which is what I sometimes recommend. Video game players can go to sleep at night; their consciences are clear -- no one died. But how do you get over watching bodies explode in real time, where there is no reset button, no ability to start over so the heroes and foes get a do-over?

Disgruntled feels: Toxic! This is really a frustrating topic for me. Mainstream media insist on parading before the public a gaggle of talking heads that refer to Social Security as an entitlement program, inferring it contributes to the nation's debt problem. This erroneous notion completely dismisses the fact that Social Security recipients pay into the program their entire working lives and Social Security has not cost the federal government a dime. For example, I started paying the Social Security payroll tax while still in high school. Now, after more than thirty-five years of paying into the system, I am near retirement age, and I am worried the system may not be there when I need it, never mind my children that are currently paying into it. This brings me to my real bone of contention. Remember how Republicans and George W. Bush tried to foist on us the privatization of Social Security? We rejected that proposition as a stealth move to destroy the system. Well, the payroll tax holiday under Barack Obama is more of the same, a stealth bait and switch game designed to further damage the solvency of Social Security. It is not about providing a stimulus for the economy or giving the poor and middle class a tax break; it is a toxic ploy to kill SS!

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

Email www.veteranstoday.com...More victims of Agent Orange...By John J. Bury...Some Vietnam veterans who have had or now has diseases brought on by Presumptive Exposure to Agent Orange Dioxin are not alone. Many children of Vietnam veterans conceived during and after the war are also infected by Agent Orange Dioxin. This is the second generation. Will there be a third generation? Some members of the Armed Forces are recognized by the Veterans Administration (VA). Members who served in the Vietnam War are those recognized as having Boots-On-Ground; as well as Brown Water forces. Blue Water forces (Navy) and Airmen (Air force), never having Boots-On-Ground are not recognized. Our legislators need to enact provision for recognition of all armed forces who served in this war. This provision must include children of these veterans, and may need to go as far as to include grandchildren. Men and women, who were in the armed forces of all military branches who served in country Vietnam or, at sea and in the air in the combat zone were exposed to the deadly herbicide, Agent Orange Dioxin. Some of these service members, unbeknown to them may have passed on in child conception, the effects of the infecting chemical Dioxin. Dioxin is the main ingredient in the herbicide Agent Orange which was sprayed as a defoliant in Vietnam. Our armed forces on land, sea and air were in contact in some form with this herbicide.

Email http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer85.html...The destruction of Fallujah is only one small item on an almost unbelievable list of horrors heaped by the United States and Britain on Iraq - crimes that are rarely considered individually and almost never as a whole. Readers might like to consider how often they can recall the mainstream media summing up the recent history of Iraq in the way that US dissident writer Bill Blum did last week: "... no American should be allowed to forget that the nation of Iraq, the society of Iraq, have been destroyed, ruined, a failed state. The Americans, beginning 1991, bombed for 12 years, with one excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, killed wantonly, tortured ... the people of that unhappy land have lost everything -- their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives ... "More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, blood and genes drenched with depleted uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... unexploded cluster bombs lie in wait for children to pick them up ... an army of young Islamic men went to Iraq to fight the American invaders; they left the country more militant, hardened by war, to spread across the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia ... a river of blood runs alongside the Euphrates and Tigris ... through a country that may never be put back together again."

Email www.independent.co.uk...Exxon's deal with the Kurds inflames Baghdad...By Patrick Cockburn...The great Iraqi oil rush has started to exacerbate dangerous communal tensions after a major oil company ignored the wishes of the central government in Baghdad and decided to do business with its main regional rival. The bombshell exploded last month when Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company, defied the instructions of the Baghdad government and signed a deal with the Iraqi Kurds to search for oil in the northern area of Iraq they control. To make matters worse, three of the areas Exxon has signed up to explore are on territory the two authorities dispute. The government must now decide if it will retaliate by kicking Exxon out of a giant oilfield it is developing in the south of Iraq.