Three Blind Mice
by
Leah C. Wells
Dissident Voice
March 2, 2003
I
sat next to seventh grader Amina and ninth grader Samara on the Royal Jordanian
flight from Baghdad to Amman a week ago.
These two young girls are fleeing Iraq with their family, as are
millions of other Iraqis, for neighboring Jordan. Syria is inundated with Iraqi refugees; the girls' father
estimated around four million.
"Iraqis right now are
like this," describes Samara.
"It's like putting mice in a jar and shaking it up and then letting
the mice run loose. That is Iraq. That is how the people are."
Disoriented. Chaotic.
Dazed. Quaking.
But on the surface you'd
never know. In Baghdad for an
international student gathering, I had the opportunity to walk around the city
to restaurants, strolling and taking stock of the fragile situation. Old men sat outside cafes playing chess,
drinking Iraqi chai, or sweet tea.
Young men worked to clean out and repair building facades. Boys washed cars and peddled
cigarettes. Women and children walked
to and from the markets, and kids went to school. Life on the surface appears normal.
But the two girls, Amina and
Samara, are correct. Their metaphor
accurately depicts Iraq at this moment.
People are recalling the first Gulf War, thinking of all that was
destroyed and the enduring catastrophic sanctions which have left their country
largely unrepaired. The people of Iraq
are considerably less prepared and certainly less healthy than they were twelve
years ago.
Iraq's medical
infrastructure provided for preventative medicine for all members of
society. Children in 1990 had all their
inoculations and an infrastructure which provided them with clean water and
adequate nutrition. Today, due to the
sporadic functioning of electrical plants, refrigerated vaccinations ruin, and
crucial medical supplies like x-ray film and bloodbags are hard to come by. A centrifuge waited on hold in Amman, banned
by the Sanctions Committee 661.
UNICEF and the World Food
Programme have been trying to prepare the country for a U.S.-led invasion. These agencies, along with every other
United Nations agency dealing with children, agriculture, health, welfare,
education and nutrition, have reported on the devastating effects of the
sanctions, and now they are bracing for a humanitarian crisis resulting from a
massive attack. UNICEF worries most
about the people having access to clean water post-invasion. In 1991, civilian infrastructure like water
and sewage treatment facilities were targeted, as were roads and bridges. UNICEF is working around the clock to
distribute humanitarian goods all over the country so that in the case of
damaged transportation routes, the people will have access to vital sustenance.
They are getting
unprecedented cooperation from the Government of Iraq in importing and
distributing necessary goods, like high
protein biscuits and F100, a therapeutic food/medicine which helps to recover
body weight and fluid in cases of severe dehydration and malnutrition. These two particular items had been unimportable
for over two years.
While major media networks
are reporting that as a tactic of war, Saddam intends to starve his people, the
humanitarian agencies dealing with food distribution are reporting the exact
opposite. Already, UNICEF is
distributing the food rations for June and July, and they were given the
authority six months ago to begin distributing rations in two months' supply at
the urgence of the Government of Iraq.
In essence, the government and the United Nations agencies are working
in concert to ensure that in the case of war, the people would not be
unprepared.
Many U.N. agencies are also
working with the local Iraqi staff to complete post-conflict assessments. UNICEF has been training teachers how to
diagnose students with severe trauma and where to refer them for further
in-depth care. Schools are also a
crucial part of the post-conflict plan for supporting the children of Iraq
whose age demographics comprise half of the country, and UNICEF believes it
will be very important to have a functioning educational infrastructure so that
students can resume some normalcy as quickly as possible after a major attack.
But what will that normalcy
look like?
How can life be normal for a
four-year-old who has experience the "shock and awe" of 800 bombs
falling on his city in just two days?
Even if school restarts, even if there is a commitment from the United
States to rebuild Iraq, how could we ever undo the damage done to the children
of Iraq who have no control over their leader, his policies or the past
grievances of the Iraqi government.
The internationally
supported alternative weapons
inspections should be given ample time
to work. The aforementioned student
gathering is another means for creating spaces for peace: dialogue. Young people separated by warring
governments need the space to know each other as people, not as enemy nations.
War is not liberation. Bombs do not bring peace.
Leah C. Wells of Santa Paula, CA is a teacher and
writer, and serves as the Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org) She just returned from Iraq and spent time there
last year.
She
may be contacted at education@napf.org