Page 213 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

Doctrines of Media and State 203

sewage treatment plants were also in disarray. Progressive critics of the war
such as Christian Parenti reported that, over a year after the invasion, untreated
sewage was still flowing into the major Iraqi rivers, leading thousands of resi-
dents drinking from the rivers to become sick. Parenti blamed the "delays in the
sewage rehabilitation" throughout much of the country on the unwillingness of
the U.S. and its contractors to bring Iraqis into the reconstruction process. As
Gazwan Muktar, a retired electrical engineer explained to Parenti: "You need to
have the people who spent years running these irrigation canals or power plants
to be there. They know the tricks; they know the quirks. But the foreign con-
tracts ignore Iraqis, and as a result, they get n~where!""~ Although infrastruc-
ture development largely fell below many critics' expectations, the Bush ad-
ministration announced in late 2005 that it planned on terminating U.S. funding
for most of the reconstruction regardless.'24 Brigadier General William McCoy
stated: "The U.S. never intended to completely rebuild Iraq. . . . This [recon-
struction] was just supposed to be a jump-start."'25
The slowdown in reconstruction, coupled with the growth of violence, lack
of central authority, deterioration of social order, and high unemployment in
Iraq, mean that the raising of living standards and health levels are severely
compromised. The United Nations Development Program, which surveyed
21,000 households in 2004, found that Iraqis endured high rates of infant and
child mortality, low rates of life expectancy, and generally high levels of malnu-
trition.Iz6 Forty percent of urban homes complained that sewage still remained
within the streets of their neighborhoods, while 37 percent explained that gun-
shots and other artillery fire were normal occurrences in the areas in which they
lived, with shooting incidents taking place every day.'27 An internal staff report
by the U.S. embassy in Iraq revealed a similar assessment. The embassy study,
conducted by a joint civilian and military group in Baghdad, found that six of
the country's eighteen provinces suffered under "serious" or "critical" condi-
tions in terms of violent destabilization. A number of factors were cited, includ-
ing increasing sectarian violence, the failure to form functioning governments,
low levels of economic development, high unemployment, and a general "secu-
rity situation marked by routine violence, assassinations, and extremi~m."'~~
Food shortages throughout Iraq are especially important when looking at the
post-invasion period, as the country has become less and less stable. While the
number of children going hungry under Saddam Hussein and sanctions was es-
timated to be 4 ercent, that number nearly doubled under U.S. occupation by
March of 2005.'P9 By other estimates released in 2005, 23 percent of Iraqi chil-
dren between one-half a year and five years old suffered from chronic malnutri-
tion, 12 percent from general malnutrition, and 8 percent from severe malnutri-
tion.130 Fewer than 55 percent of homes were said to have "safe and stable"
access to clean water, whereas that number jumped to 80 percent in rural areas.
Finally, 78 percent of homes listed "severe instability" as a major problem with
which they were plagued.'3' U.S. media reporting, while conceding most of the
points above, has failed to draw the obvious conclusion that the U.S. is primarily
to blame for those breakdowns, as the major occupying power in Iraq.