5 years after Iraq's 'liberation,' there are worms in the water

[Bjorn Against]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — Iraq's most prominent clerics have ruled that using a water pump on one's own pipes is akin to stealing resources from a neighbor, so what does a person do when it takes half an hour to fill a cooking pot with water from the tap?

Iraqis pray for forgiveness, then pump away.

To them, the real crime is that five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq , they still swelter in the summer and freeze in the winter because of a lack of electricity. Government rations are inevitably late, incomplete or expired. Garbage piles up for days, sometimes weeks, emanating toxic fumes.

The list goes on: black-market fuel, phone bills for land lines that haven't worked in years, education and health-care systems degraded by the flight of thousands of Iraq's best teachers and doctors.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080316/wl_mcclatchy/2878538

[lligrd]

1. K&R

[rucognizant]

19. Welcome to democracy & freedom American style!

"Under Saddam's regime, we had limited salaries but we had security and decent services. Now, we have decent incomes but we lose it all to water, propane, groceries, fuel. We save nothing," said Balqis Kareem , 46, a Sunni Muslim housewife who lives in the predominantly Shiite Muslim district of Karrada. "This government gives with the right hand and takes away with the left."

SOunds like my life in retirement on SS!

[alfredo]

2. Mission fuckin' accomplished.

Read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein and you will see this is how the free market experiments usually end. No matter how many try to build a society based on Milton Friedman's philosophy, it ends in disaster. I'm sure the pain of failure is mitigated by the fortunes earned through exploiting the resulting chaos.

[DogPoundPup]

4. Yea,

After 5 years, bush and co. got us all around that "corner" Cheney and Rummy were so fond of speaking about; in other words - complete destruction - in Iraq and the U.S.!!!

[alfredo]

5. I think putting ideology above reality will put the Reps out of office and

out of favor for a long time. Because the truth will come out about Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and New Orleans.

[Zorra]

3. Saddam Hussein was a total asshole, but Bu*h is a much bigger asshole.

:shrug:?

[grytpype]

6. Bush said life was returning to normal in Baghdad.

[Hideboh]

7. Nobody cares about the Iraqi people.

All we care about is their oil.

[WinkyDink]

18. Exactly. Succinctly. No further elaboration required. THIS IS THE TRUTH.

[LibDemAlways]

25. We have a winner. And welcome to DU.

The original name of this disaster was Operation Iraqi Liberation. No doubt Cheney came up with that one, and he was probably laughing his ass off when he suggested it.

[defendandprotect]

8. Said this long ago, but I think we're going for GENOCIDE in Iraq . . .

Nobody has been able to stop these psychopaths ---
and the damage they have done is inestimable ---

There is no way Americans can ever make amends to these people --- !!!

[Wabbajack_]

9. "Iraq's most prominent clerics have ruled that using a water pump

on one's own pipes is akin to stealing resources from a neighbor,"

Why?

[JVS]

10. Have you ever noticed that when you flush the toilet other faucets in the house lose water pressure?

It's kind of like that. Suppose We live in a building and all 10 apartments are running the water to fill a pot. If you use a pump, you suck away the water and your neighbors get an even slower trickle of water.

[Wabbajack_]

13. Yeah but

when you finish it'll go back to normal.

[JVS]

14. If filling a pot normally takes 20 minutes, pumping for 5 minutes to fill you own pot is a shitty...

thing to do and will cost your neighbors even more time. It is wrong. I side with the clerics on this one

[Xipe Totec]

11. Broken Spears

Broken spears lie in the roads;
We have torn our hair in our grief
The houses are roofless now, and their walls
Are red with blood.

Worms are swarming in the streets and plazas,
And the walks are spattered with gore
The water has turned red, as if it were dyed
And when we drink it,
It has the taste of brine

We have pounded our hands in despair
Against the adobe walls,
For our inheritance, our city, is lost and dead
The shields of our warriors were its defense.
But they could not save it.

We have chewed dry twigs and salt grasses:
We have filled our mouths with dust and bits of adobe.
We have eaten lizards, rats and worms
When we had meat, we ate it almost raw.

Lament for the fall of Tenochtitlán
- Cantares Mexicanos

The National Library of Mexico,
circa 1523

[pnorman]

12. "Fall of Tenochtitlán"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tenochtitlan

Thanks for that very moving quote.

pnorman

[tanyev]

15. See? Rumsfeld was right. Democracy is messy.

:sarcasm:

[Seabiscuit]

26. So this is what he meant by "slog". n/t

[defendandprotect]

16. Cheney makes unannounced visit to Iraq . . .

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080317/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cheney

[Diclotican]

17. MN Against Bush

MN Against Bush

And US was the country who was given us, in West Europe the Marshall plan after the WW2 who was more devastating for Europe then the war in Iraq was,before the US pro-consul destroyed the whole fabric of Iraq....

But then, you have a plan for Europe a whole YEAR before the Normandie attack, and the war on the continent who was going to destroy the German nazi-forces....

This time US have _no_ Plan WHAT SO EVER to do, when Iraq was "liberated". But US managed to "Protect" the oil.. Who many belived that was the real reason for the war...

But hey, US have managed to give Iraq back to the people.. And that Iraq have been going back 50 or 100 year... That is not US fault is it :sarcasm:

[progressoid]

20. Spreadin' democracy is hard work.

[Peanut Butter]

21. Hearts and Minds ....NOT !

[BRLIB]

23. At least two more worms are now in Iraq

They can't even shop at the market where lasts years stunt was pulled off- not safe enough.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

22. Those worms are liberators

Why do you hate the worms (and America)?

[whistle]

24. All part of the Imperialist genocide strategy, everything is working according to BushCo/Negroponte

...plans for hegemony and total domination :wtf:

[emmadoggy]

27. But, but, but....on Good Morning America this morning they said

that everything is going just swimmingly in Iraq! They showed a whole bunch of polls of the Iraqi people and 55% said that life is better now. They showed women walking down a bustling street smiling and laughing. Everything is wonderful there now!!


:sarcasm: :eyes:

[LSK]

28. well when the bar is that you make it home alive then life is better

:sarcasm:

[shadowknows69]

29. Best way to kill a people down to manageable levels

Fuck with their water. Or just don't clean it for them.

[snooper2]

30. Hillary says they got their freedom

:puke: