[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH, GLOBAL: "The toxic legacy of the Iraq War on the Iraqis themselves"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

“Stack the bodies outside the door”: Pollution, contamination and the toxic legacy of the Iraq War on the Iraqis themselves
Savabieasfahani, an award winning toxicologist, explains lead contamination and health problems inflicting Iraq

by David Masciotra
Salon
September 18, 2016

In “Last to Die,” his protest song against the war in Iraq, Bruce Springsteen sings, “We don’t measure the blood we’ve drawn anymore. We just stack the bodies outside the door.”

When the U.S. government and the world’s most lethal military force subject an entire country to torture and torment, the wounds fester long after bored Americans direct their attention elsewhere, and explosions and bloodshed, thousands of miles away and across the ocean, fail to attract news cameras.

The American people and their politicians might have moved on from Iraq, but the American presence of violence and devastation still hurts and haunts the lives of Iraqis. As a direct result of the U.S. invasion and occupation, Iraqi children now have high levels of lead contamination, and pregnant women and the elderly population suffer from expensive and painful health problems. There is an epidemic of birth defects and disabilities throughout the beleaguered country, but much of the world, and especially the U.S., continues to ignore the health crisis and moral catastrophe.

The casualty count, even if the war is over, continues to rise. Bombs and bullets damage the lives of millions of Iraqi civilians, subsequent to their detonation, and penetration of human skin. In America, the war in Iraq is too often reduced to a “mistake,” but for Iraq it is a merciless reaper that will continue to visit the homes of innocent people for generations.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.salon.com/2016/09/18/stack-the-bodies-outside-the-door-pollution-contamination-and-the-toxic-legacy-of-the-iraq-war-on-the-iraqis-themselves/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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