Iraquis in dire straits

[Jon Ford]

Margot--The "healthy,"  well-nourished look of many Iraquis was something I 
noticed throughout the war. This was a country and an economy  that had been 
seriously damaged by the Gulf War and the embargo, but it was still 
functioning, feeding its people as well as it could (although there was a 
high infant mortality rate), doing business more or less as usual (which 
meant repression of religious freedoms and the right to say anything bad 
about Saddam) . Will things get better now after the "liberation"?  I'm not 
really strongly confident of that, needless to say.

Jon



>From: Margot <ghettotoo@yahoo.com>
>To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
>Subject
>----An "oddity" I noticed in all the pix of Shiites celebrating (the
>shirtless ones, not the icky bloody ones):  They all look extremely
>healthy & well-nourished.  Almost like a crowd of typical, shirtless
>Americans.  I thought Iraq had been in dire straits re food & medicine.
>
>______________________________________________
> > >From: Michael Eisenstadt <michaele@ando.pair.com>
> > >
> > >on another subject, the evolving Iraq situation has
> > >become extremely interesting. look closely at the
> > >Kirbala Shiite crowd: most of them are SYMBOLLICALLY
> > >beating themselves in grief over the murder of
> > >Caliph Ali. only a very small number of them are
> > >ACTUALLY flagellating themselves with steel chains
> > >till blood flows. this is a good index of the future
> > >Shia political position, no? many were chanting
> > >Death to America, Death to Israel.
>
> > >
> > >on another subject, Colin (colon?) Powell
>
>----useless factoid:  in his bio, Powell explains his name was always
>properly pronounced, until he got into the military, where TPTB kept
>mispronouncing it, so he went along.  I guess when one is a 2nd Lt.
>with ambitions, it's not smart to keep correcting one's senior officers
>:-(
>(I've done the same thing when some people insisted on pronouncing the
>T in my name; ditto when folks leave it off in writing.  Picking my
>battles.)
>_________________________________________________
> > >on another subject, going back to fundamentals, the
> > >neo-cons' argument is that paribis ceteris liberal
> > >democracy is an irrestable trump card over Islamic
> > >religious fundamentalism DESPITE previous opinions
> > >of America and that the Arab mind like everyone
> > >else's mind is malleable.
>
>-----Talk about magical thinking!!
>___________________________________________
>. also,
> > >which is a surprising thing to me, is that the
> > >Israelis have apparently managed to surpress all
> > >suicide operations at least for the moment. so it
> > >seems that even suicide operations can be countered
> > >with determination and lotsa modern machinery.
>
>---Oops.  Another murder/suicide bomber in Israel tonight.
>
>Margot
>
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