When Will They Ever Learn?

A chilling report from Dahr Jamail on the Iraq War's cancer legacy.  From 1991 to 2005, the cancer rate has gone from 40 out of 100,000 people to 1,600 out of 100,000, with rates still increasing.  And,

As shocking as these statistics are, due to a lack of adequate documentation, research, and reporting of cases, the actual rate of cancer and other diseases is likely to be much higher than even these figures suggest.

"Cancer statistics are hard to come by, since only 50 per cent of the healthcare in Iraq is public," Dr Salah Haddad of the Iraqi Society for Health Administration and Promotion told Al Jazeera. "The other half of our healthcare is provided by the private sector, and that sector is deficient in their reporting of statistics. Hence, all of our statistics in Iraq must be multiplied by two. Any official numbers are likely only half of the real number."

Dr. Haddad states the increasing rates correlate to the amount of bombing carried out by U.S. forces in areas like Fallujah where health authorities are also seeing an increase in congenital malformations, sterility, and infertility.  One related study finds the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied, including Hiroshima.  The steep rise in congenital birth abnormalities includes "children being born with two heads, children born with only one eye, multiple tumours, disfiguring facial and body deformities, and complex nervous system problems."

Meanwhile and below, grok these stats in an opinion piece from LaughToNotCry on the 60 billion other reasons why the Iraq War was a rotten idea.




*Photo credit/courtesy of Wikipedia/photographer: Simon Rutherford/from "Protests Against The Iraq War,"  Photograph of a protest against the war in Iraq, taken from Hungerford Bridge, in Embankment London. 15th Febuary 2003.