It's almost like I should make this a new, regular feature. Given that some of the BTs are just tickled by the apparent delirious joy of Iraqis these days, one wonders which one of those right-wing mouthpieces will be the first to note this depressing development:
Voices From Iraq 2007: Ebbing Hope in a Landscape of Loss
A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever starker sectarian chasm — and a draining away of the underlying optimism that once prevailed.
Violence is the cause, its reach vast. Eighty percent of Iraqis report attacks nearby — car bombs, snipers, kidnappings, armed forces fighting each other or abusing civilians. It's worst by far in the capital of Baghdad, but by no means confined there.
The personal toll is enormous. More than half of Iraqis, 53 percent, have a close friend or relative who's been hurt or killed in the current violence. One in six says someone in their own household has been harmed. Eighty-six percent worry about a loved one being hurt; two-thirds worry deeply. Huge numbers limit their daily activities to minimize risk. Seven in 10 report multiple signs of traumatic stress.
This is the third poll in Iraq sponsored by ABC News and media partners — in this case USA Today, the BBC and ARD German TV — and the changes are grim. In November 2005, 63 percent of Iraqis felt very safe in their neighborhoods. Today just 26 percent say the same. One in three doesn't feel safe at all. In Baghdad, home to a fifth of the country's population, that skyrockets: Eighty-four percent feel entirely unsafe.
Tune in tomorrow when the few Blogging Tories who make note of this dismiss it as biased, liberal propaganda, while they swear by what they read at The Drudge Report.
Yeah, you only wish I was making that up.
1 comment:
Oh, yeah. The blame game will continue for at least another US administration, or even forever, since the US is a country that stopped learning at the end of WW2.
The current blame game is simply another chapter in the blame game that began after the fall of Saigon. Being too young to remember Vietnam all that well, I was shocked to find out how many former Nixonians were still living and resurfaced under the administration of Bush the Second.
Those people should have been exiled decades ago.
Post a Comment