Postwar Iraq paying heavy environmental price

[leftchick]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02225727.htm

AMMAN, June 2 (Reuters) - Iraq's environmental problems - among world's worst - range from a looted nuclear site which needs cleaning up to sabotaged oil pipelines, a U.N. official said on Thursday.

"An improvement is almost impossible in these security conditions. Chemicals are seeping into groundwater and the situation is becoming worse and creating additional health problems," said Pekka Haavisto, Iraq task force chairman at the United Nations Environmental Programme.


<snip>

The situation became worse after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, in which depleted uranium munitions were used against Iraq for the second time and postwar looting and burning of the once formidable infrastructure caused massive spills and toxic plumes, Haavisto said.

"The bombing and war carried a cost but the looting cost the environment more, such as in the Dora refinery or Tuwaitha nuclear storage," Haavisto said.

[dbt]

1. "Postwar?" What did I miss here?

What if we won and nobody told me?

[Auntie Bush]

6. What have you been doing? Hiding under a rock or in a spider hole?

"Hello"...You can come out now! It's safe...my president told me so!(And he doesn't lie because he's a good empathetic, generous, gentle God fearing Christian who talks to God personally)

I'm afraid you missed bush* all decked out in his sock stuffed codpiece as he announced dimourly...with little fanfair...that HIS "Mission Had Been Accomplished" (Got the OIL, Saddam on the run, and so is that tall drink of water...what's his name forgotten, got revenge for his Daddy, repaid his donors, family and friends with wealth and power. But best of all...destablized the Middle East and created more opportunities to engage in more wars and more terrorists and use lots of oil and keep the demand/price/profits up, make more millions...endless circle, made more enemies, scared the shit out of all those flag waving, uneducated devoted followers who will vote Republican...until the Rapture...so he can protect the people from all this evil.) Yes, his Mission had been accomplished...did just what he wanted to do...but he had to JET out of there as he was in a hurry to go 20 miles to change his pants and go nite-nite because he was exhausted from a whole day of "Hard Work" posing for pictures for ads for his next election. It was already past his bedtime and now he could finally Rest In Peace...I wish. But he couldn't sleep...(no, not because he was guilty of killing thousands of people, blowing up a nation, destroying it's infrastructure, contaminating the water, air and soil with radio active cancer causing pollutants, all those deformed babies, maimed soldiers and civilians because he gave them FREEDOM and proved to the world that they were all much safer because Saddam had no WMD and he was anxiously anticipating doing it to another axis of evil.) No, He couldn't sleep because he remembered that he actually MADE A MISTAKE! He FORGOT to tell all those Insurgents that he had given them Freedom and that the war was over...or maybe they just couldn't HEAR him because all those bombs and annoying screaming babies were making so much noise. So, cheer up...you're not the only one that missed his casual, inexpensive
little announcement on that boat, in fact, so did the whole world!

[LynnTheDem]

2. And another "worse than Saddam"...and what's with the "post" war shit?

So...what exactly is BETTER NOW than under Hussein???

Not electricty, not clean water, not employment, not women's freedoms, not security, not crimes, not food, not life, not staying alive, not medical, not malnutrition, not environment...

WHAT exactly is BETTER now, going on THREE YEARS LATER???

[acmavm]

3. Good luck cleaning up all that depleted uranium radiation.

.

[leftchick]

5. It isn't just Iraqis exposed to it either...

If the freeps and freaks would think of how this affects our soldiers as well as Iraqis perhaps there would be more caution about using that shit. DU will be around for to kill generations.

[PunkPop]

4. It's a crime on a massive scale

Somebody HAS to pay for this. I don't care if he's in his 80's like Pinochet, Bush must pay the consequences of his crimes (of course I'd llke to see something happen earlier so more of his remaining years on earth are fucked up).

[TexasLawyer]

7. Depleted Uranium

This time around, the DU dust is contaminating Iraqi cities. In Desert Storm, at least much of the DU was concentrated in and around distant desert battlegrounds.