[This is just a glimpse of what's going on in Iraq ]
A Never-ending Nightmare...
Tears fill his eyes, as a father waits for his frail and thin son to die on the hospital bed. Over five thousand Iraqi children a month continue to die as a result of UN and US sanctions. Iraq used to be a thriving country; nevertheless, the people of Iraq are now suffering like never before. Since 1990, The UN and US have imposed sanctions on Ira; the people of Iraq have been living through a repeating nightmare -- and they do not wake up.
Iraq was once one of the most advanced and rapidly advancing nations in the Arab, and perhaps even the Muslim, world. However, the people of Iraq have now been living through eleven years of sanctions. These sanctions were imposed by the United Nations Security Council on August 6, 1990. Since then, the people have been suffering in all areas of life. There has been massive poverty; many children are forced to help earn money so that their families could eat and buy food. Half a million children under the age of five have died of malnutrition during the first five years of these sanctions. A whole generation of children are growing up underweight and small because of malnutrition and the lack of medical care. Even the infant mortality rates in Iraq are among the highest in the entire world. The UN estimates a million Iraqi children don't have enough to eat. These children are not only victims of the lack of food and nutrition --but victims of the mass destruction and bombings that have been imposed by the UN and US. Many Iraqi children have been victims of an explosion of Leukemia after the 1991 Gulf War. This disease is curable with adequate medicine, but the lack of medicines in Iraq caused there to be a zero percent recovery rate for people who have leukemia in Iraq. In addition to this, many of the depleted uranium and the radiation from the bombs used in this war have resulted in terrible deformities in , not only children, but in so many unborn Iraqi babies. During the Gulf War, coalition forces led by the US dropped 88,500 tons of bombs on Iraq. Many of the targets included sewage treatment plants, water treatment facilities, and electrical generating plants. "Iraq is suffering from the effects of one the largest, most destructive bombing campaigns in history, one that deliberately and successfully targeted key infrastructure, like water treatment and electrical power, as well as fertilizer, seed stock, and key industries." [http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Iraq/IraqCrisis.htm]. The cancer rate in Iraq has risen by over 70%. All together, more than 1,460,900 people have been victims of the sanctions.
People all around the world try to live up to their many dreams; yet these Iraqi people try to run away from their one living nightmare. The sanctions have effected every aspect of the Iraqi people’s lives. The sanctions have deprived a whole generation of Iraqi children from their childhood; forcing them to suffer economic hardships and aggression. It is so sad that even Muslims all around the world are not aware of the agony and torment that each and every Iraqi person must wake up to every single day.
"The Muslims in their mutual love, kindness and compassion are like the human body where when one of its parts is in agony the entire body feels the pain, both in sleeplessness and fever."
[Bukhari and Muslim]
----------------------------------------Sources----------------------------------------------------------------------
-A PLACE OF TEARS By: Michael Wolff; http://www.iacenter.org/iraqchallenge/a_place_of_tears.htm
-My Experiences in the ISC 4 By: Kadouri Al Kaysi Committee in support of the Iraqi people.February 2001 ; http://www.iacenter.org/iraqchallenge/kidouri.htm
-http://www.oocities.org/fearallaah/iraq.htm