Iraqi man regrets toppling statue of Saddam Hussein

[BotanyBoy]

Horse, water etc....

Very emotional and passionate opinions.

Not facts.

Did we destabilize the region? Sure.

Was it a fuck up? Yew betcha!

Did it allow religious lunatics to rise to power? Yep.

Did the US commit genocide against the Iraqi people? No....not even close to the point a couple of bleeding heart opinions is the best support you have for you claims.

US soldiers aren't over there executing people by the thousands, raping/enslaving women and decapitating/burning children alive wholesale.

I know you wish they were, but that's just not reality.

You're wrong.

 

[underguy1]

The Geneva Convention is absolutely clear. In a 1979 protocol relating to the "protection of victims of international armed conflicts," Article 54, it states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."

But that is precisely what the U.S. government did, with malice aforethought. It "destroyed, removed, or rendered useless" Iraq's "drinking water installations and supplies." The sanctions, imposed for a decade largely at the insistence of the United States, constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention. They amount to a systematic effort to, in the DIA’s own words, "fully degrade" Iraq's water sources.

http://www.progressive.org/news/200...us-intentionally-destroyed-iraqs-water-supply

 

[underguy1]

The crime of genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.


The Genocide Convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951. More than 130 nations have ratified the Genocide Convention and over 70 nations have made provisions for the punishment of genocide in domestic criminal law. The text of Article II of the Genocide Convention was included as a crime in Article 6 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

 

[underguy1]

The destruction of Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and now Syria are not 'fuck ups'. They are policy.

The rise of Salaafist nut jobs is not an unintended consequence. It is a strategy.

The mass murder of Iraqis since at the latest 1991 is US policy.

The health crises, the poverty, the privation, the lack of medicines, food and resources were and are deliberately inflicted on the civilian population.

Jut because your stupid media doesn't tell you that it doesn't mean it isn't real.

You poor, stupid, ignorant, racist loser.

 

[underguy1]

IRAQI SANCTIONS AND AMERICAN INTENTIONS: BLAMELESS CARNAGE? PART 1
by James Bovard
January 1, 2004
Part 1 | Part 2

President Bush’s advisors assured Americans that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators — with flowers and hugs — when the United States invaded Iraq. That promise turned out to be one of the biggest frauds of the Iraqi debacle.

One major reason for the animosity to U.S. troops is the lingering impact and bitter memories of the UN sanctions imposed on the Iraqis for 13 years, largely at the behest of the U.S. government. It is impossible to understand the current situation in Iraq without examining the sanctions and their toll.

President Bush, in the months before attacking Iraq, portrayed the sufferings and deprivation of the Iraqi people as resulting from the evil of Saddam Hussein. Bush’s comments were intended as an antidote to the charge by Osama bin Laden a month after 9/11 that “a million innocent children are dying at this time as we speak, killed in Iraq without any guilt.” Bin Laden listed the economic sanctions against Iraq as one of the three main reasons for his holy war against the United States.

Most Western experts believe that bin Laden sharply overstated the death toll. A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report in 1999 concluded that half a million Iraqi children had died in the previous eight years because of the sanctions. Columbia University professor Richard Garfield, an epidemiologist and an expert on the effects of sanctions, estimated in 2003 that the sanctions had resulted in infant and young-child fatalities numbering between 343,900 and 529,000.

Regardless of the precise number of fatalities (which will never be known), the sanctions were a key factor in inflaming Arab anger against the United States. The sanctions were initially imposed to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait and then were kept in place after the Gulf War supposedly in order to pressure Saddam to disarm.

Sanctions wreaked havoc on the Iraqi people, in part because the Pentagon intentionally destroyed Iraq’s water-treatment systems during the first U.S.-Iraq war:

• A January 22, 1991, Defense Intelligence Agency report titled “Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities” noted,

Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and some chemicals to purify its water supply, most of which is heavily mineralized and frequently brackish to saline…. Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics, of disease…. Unless the water is purified with chlorine, epidemics of such diseases as cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid could occur.

• The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency estimated in early 1991 that “it probably will take at least six months (to June 1991) before the [Iraqi water treatment] system is fully degraded” from the bombing during the Gulf War and the UN sanctions.

• A May 1991 Pentagon analysis entitled “Status of Disease at Refugee Camps,” noted,

Cholera and measles have emerged at refugee camps. Further infectious diseases will spread due to inadequate water treatment and poor sanitation.

• A June 1991 Pentagon analysis noted that infectious disease rates had increased since the Gulf War and warned, “The Iraqi regime will continue to exploit disease incidence data for its own political purposes.”

George Washington University professor Thomas Nagy, who marshaled the preceding reports in an analysis in the September 2001 issue of The Progressive, concluded, The United States knew it had the capacity to devastate the water treatment system of Iraq. It knew what the consequences would be: increased outbreaks of disease and high rates of child mortality. And it was more concerned about the public relations nightmare for Washington than the actual nightmare that the sanctions created for innocent Iraqis.
Pentagon intent

A Washington Post analysis published on June 23, 1991, noted that Pentagon officials admitted that, rather than concentrating solely on military targets, the U.S. bombing campaign “sought to achieve some of their military objectives in the Persian Gulf War by disabling Iraqi society at large” and “deliberately did great harm to Iraq’s ability to support itself as an industrial society.”

The bombing campaign targeted Iraq’s electrical power system, thereby destroying the country’s ability to operate its water-treatment plants. One Pentagon official who helped plan the bombing campaign observed,

People say, “You didn’t recognize that it was going to have an effect on water or sewage.” Well, what were we trying to do with sanctions — help out the Iraqi people? No. What we were doing with the attacks on infrastructure was to accelerate the effect of the sanctions.

Col. John Warden III, deputy director of strategy for the Air Force, observed,

Saddam Hussein cannot restore his own electricity. He needs help. If there are political objectives that the UN coalition has, it can say, “Saddam, when you agree to do these things, we will allow people to come in and fix your electricity.” It gives us long-term leverage.

Another Air Force planner observed,

We wanted to let people know, “Get rid of this guy and we’ll be more than happy to assist in rebuilding. We’re not going to tolerate Saddam Hussein or his regime. Fix that, and we’ll fix your electricity.”

The Post explained the Pentagon’s rationale for punishing the Iraqi people:

Among the justifications offered now, particularly by the Air Force in recent briefings, is that Iraqi civilians were not blameless for Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. “The definition of innocents gets to be a little bit unclear,” said a senior Air Force officer, noting that many Iraqis supported the invasion of Kuwait. “They do live there, and ultimately the people have some control over what goes on in their country.”

A Harvard School of Public Health team visited Iraq in the months after the war and found epidemic levels of typhoid and cholera as well as pervasive acute malnutrition. The Post noted,

In an estimate not substantively disputed by the Pentagon, the [Harvard] team projected that “at least 170,000 children under five years of age will die in the coming year from the delayed effects” of the bombing.

The U.S. military understood the havoc the 1991 bombing unleashed. A 1995 article entitled “The Enemy as a System” by John Warden, published in the Air Force’s Airpower Journal, discussed the benefits of bombing “dual-use targets” and noted,

A key example of such dual-use targeting was the destruction of Iraqi electrical power facilities in Desert Storm…. [Destruction] of these facilities shut down water purification and sewage treatment plants. As a result, epidemics of gastroenteritis, cholera, and typhoid broke out, leading to perhaps as many as 100,000 civilian deaths and a doubling of the infant mortality rate.

The article concluded that the U.S. Air Force has a “vested interest in attacking dual-use targets” that undermine “civilian morale.”
Infant mortality rates

In 1995, a team of doctors (including a representative of the Harvard School of Public Health) visited Iraq under the auspices of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization to examine the nutritional status and mortality rates of young children in Baghdad. They concluded that the sanctions had resulted in the deaths of 567,000 children in the previous five years. (Most subsequent studies implicitly concluded that this study sharply overestimated the mortality toll in the first years of the sanctions.)

CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl relied on this estimate in 1996 when she asked U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright,

We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Albright answered,

I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.

Albright’s words echoed like thunder through the Arab world in the following years.

At the behest of the United States and Britain, the United Nations maintained a de facto embargo on Iraq through 1996, when an “oil for food” program was approved. Saddam and the UN had wrangled for five years over the conditions under which Iraq would be permitted to resume oil exports. The “oil for food” program gave the UN Security Council veto power over how every cent of Iraqi oil revenues would be spent. The de facto blockade on the Iraqi people made many common illnesses far more lethal.

The Detroit News noted, “Many diseases — including cancer — cannot be treated in Iraq.” The Washington Post noted in December 2002, shortly after the Bush administration proposed new restrictions on antibiotic imports by Iraq,

As a practical matter, the most modern and effective medicines already are hard to come by here, even some of those used to treat routine illness.

One Baghdad pharmacist groused that he “cannot get atropine or inhalers for asthmatics or insulin for diabetics.”

The infant/young-child mortality rate in Iraq rose from 50 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 133 per 1,000 in 2001 (meaning that more than 13 percent of Iraqi children die before the age of five). Iraq had by far the sharpest rise in infant/young-child mortality of any nation in the world during that period, according to UNICEF. Professor Garfield declared,

It is the only instance of a sustained increase in mortality in a stable population of more than 2 million in the last 200 years.

Sanctions advocates claimed that the punitive policy would spur discontent and eventually undermine Saddam’s rule. However, a Harvard International Review analysis noted,

Sanctions seem to have bolstered Saddam’s domestic popularity. He uses the sanctions to demonize the West and to rally support for his leadership; they have been a convenient scapegoat for internal problems. The rations system he has established in response to the sanctions has tightened his control of Iraqi citizens’ everyday lives, making them totally dependent on the government for mere survival and less likely to challenge his authority for fear of starvation.

 

[underguy1]

IRAQI SANCTIONS AND AMERICAN INTENTIONS: BLAMELESS CARNAGE? PART 2
by James Bovard
February 1, 2004
Part 1 | Part 2

While Pentagon officials bluntly admitted in 1991 that sanctions aimed to punish the Iraqi people, candor evaporated as the death toll rose. The State Department’s website announced in June 1999,

Sanctions are not intended to harm the people of Iraq. That is why the sanctions regime has always specifically exempted food and medicine.

This was false. Banning exports of oil effectively also banned imports of food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods. Some of the worst impacts of the sanctions dissipated after the oil-for-food program was launched, but by that time, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis may have already perished.

Denis Halliday, the UN administrator of the oil-for-food program, resigned in 1998 to protest the ravages the sanctions were continuing to inflict on Iraqis. Halliday complained, “We are in the process of destroying an entire country” and denounced the sanctions as “nothing less than genocide.” Hans von Sponeck, his replacement, served two years before resigning in protest in early 2000, denouncing the sanctions as a “criminal policy.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a report in December 1999 that the oil-for-food program “has not halted the collapse of the health system and the deterioration of water supplies, which together pose one of the gravest threats to the health and well-being of the civilian population.” Seventy members of Congress sent a letter to President Clinton in early 2000 denouncing the sanctions as “infanticide masquerading as policy.”

While sanctions were maintained after the Gulf War allegedly to compel Iraq to disarm, the U.S. government long pursued a different goal. Secretary of State James Baker declared in May 1991, “We are not interested in seeking a relaxation of sanctions as long as Saddam Hussein is in power.” President Clinton decreed in November 1997 that “sanctions will be there until the end of time, or as long as he [Saddam Hussein] lasts.” At the end of the Clinton era, Defense Secretary William Cohen bragged,

We have been successful, through the sanctions regime, to really shut off most of the revenue that will be going to rebuild [Saddam Hussein’s] military.

Joy Gordon, professor of philosophy at Fairfield University, spent three years researching the effects of the UN sanctions programs on Iraq. Gordon obtained many confidential UN documents that showed that

the United States has fought aggressively throughout the last decade to purposefully minimize the humanitarian goods that enter the country,

as she reported in a November 2002 Harper’s article.

After the first Gulf War, the UN Security Council set up a committee to administer sanctions on Iraq. The U.S. government vigorously exploited its veto power on the committee by placing holds on contracts. The Economist declared in early 2000 that Americans and British on the sanctions committee were “abusing their power to block suspicious imports.” The United States blocked the importing of ambulances, tires, and soap. Imports of children’s pencils were restricted “because lead could have a military use.” The United States vetoed allowing car batteries and forklifts to be included on a list of humanitarian goods that could automatically be sent into Iraq. The Associated Press summarized controversies around U.S. vetoes of imports:

Most of the disputed contracts are for equipment to improve Iraq’s dilapidated oil industry, power grid and water sanitation infrastructure.

The U.S. government routinely and perennially vetoed delivery of goods that UN weapons inspectors had certified as posing no military benefit to Saddam. As of September 2001, the United States was blocking “nearly one-third of water and sanitation and one quarter of electricity and educational — supply contracts were on hold.” Gordon noted, “As of September 2001, nearly a billion dollars’ worth of medical-equipment contracts — for which all the information sought had been provided — was still on hold.”

In early 2002, the United States blocked contracts for the delivery of “dialysis, dental, and fire-fighting equipment, water tankers, milk and yogurt production equipment, printing equipment for schools.” Gordon reported,

Since August 1991 the United States has blocked most purchases of materials necessary for Iraq to generate electricity…. Often restrictions have hinged on the withholding of a single essential element, rendering many approved items useless. For example, Iraq was allowed to purchase a sewage-treatment plant but was blocked from buying the generator necessary to run it; this in a country that has been pouring 300,000 tons of raw sewage daily into its rivers.

Sanctions and political games

Gordon observed that the U.S. government “has sometimes given a reason for its refusal to approve humanitarian goods, sometimes given no reason at all, and sometimes changed its reason three or four times, in each instance causing a delay of months.” She noted,

The United States found many ways to slow approval of contracts. Although it insisted on reviewing every contract carefully, for years it didn’t assign enough staff to do this without causing enormous delays.”

Large shipments of humanitarian aid were delayed “simply because of U.S. disinterest in spending the money necessary to review them.”

The U.S. government played politics with its holds, turning Iraq into a pork barrel for wheeling and dealing on the UN Security Council. In 2001, the United States proposed a reform called “smart sanctions” that would have automatically slowed down many more imports into Iraq — while removing the United States from culpability for blocking the relief. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the U.S. government was confident that the revised sanctions system would be

able to keep the box as tightly closed as we have the last 10 years, without receiving on our shoulders all the baggage that goes with it.

When Russia refused to support “smart sanctions,” the United States responded by slapping holds on almost all the contracts that Russian companies had to deliver goods to Iraq. After Russia agreed to support a revised sanctions reform in April 2002, U.S. government holds on three-quarters of a billion dollars in Russian contracts for Iraq suddenly vanished in what one diplomat told the Financial Times was “the boldest move yet by the U.S. to use the holds to buy political agreement.”

Gordon concluded that “U.S. policy consistently opposed any form of economic development within Iraq.” As of mid 2002, the importation of almost $5 billion in humanitarian goods was blocked — almost entirely because of holds imposed by the U.S. and British governments.
Blaming Saddam

President Bush sought to blame all the suffering of the Iraqi people on Saddam’s lust for weapons. In an October 7, 2002, speech Bush declared,

The world has also tried economic sanctions and watched Iraq use billions of dollars in illegal oil revenues to fund more weapons purchases, rather than providing for the needs of the Iraqi people.

While Saddam did use some of the revenue from “illegal” (i.e., not authorized by the UN) oil sales to Syria and elsewhere to purchase weapons, the United States never presented any evidence that such purchases amounted to “billions of dollars.” The U.S. position appeared to be that as long as Saddam spent a single cent on weapons, the United States was blameless for the devastation from its “siege warfare” tactics.

After human-rights advocates had harshly condemned sanctions on Iraq for almost a decade, the sanctions suddenly morphed into a causus belli. At a March 27, 2003, joint press conference for Bush and Britian’s prime minister, Tony Blair, Blair declared,

Over the past five years, 400,000 Iraqi children under the age of five died of malnutrition and disease, preventively, but died because of the nature of the regime under which they are living. Now, that is why we’re acting.

Progressive editor Matthew Rothschild observed that Bush and Blair “refuse to acknowledge any responsibility for those deaths and instead seize upon them simply to justify their war of aggression.”

After the war started, the suffering caused by sanctions became further proof of Saddam’s depravity. In a March 25, 2003, press conference announcing plans for humanitarian aid after the Iraq War, Andrew Natsios, administrator for the Agency for International Development, declared,

There has been a water issue, and I am not sure everybody entirely understands this. It predates the war. Water and sanitation are the principal reasons children have died at higher rates than they should have for a middle-income country…. It is a function of a deliberate decision by the regime not to repair the water system or replace old equipment with new equipment, so in many cases people are basically drinking untreated sewer water in their homes and have been for some years.

In reality, the United States government perennially blocked the importation of the necessary equipment and supplies to repair the water system — as if it were a “dual use” because of the possibility that Iraqi soldiers would get glasses of water from the repaired systems.

From 1991 through the end of 2002, 8,924 people were killed in attacks by international terrorists, according to the U.S. State Department. The sanctions on Iraq may have killed more than 50 times as many civilians as did terrorists during a time when terrorism was supposedly one of the gravest threats to humanity.

During the 2000 election campaign, Bush criticized the Clinton administration for failing to keep sanctions as tight as possible. In the lead-up to the war, he frequently relished recounting the details of Saddam’s brutality, especially the alleged gas attacks against Kurdish villages that, according to Bush, “killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September the 11th.” (It is unclear whether it was the Iraqis or the Iranians who actually carried out the gas attacks.)

But far more Iraqi children were killed by sanctions after Bush’s inauguration on Janu ary 20, 2001, than Saddam killed in his alleged gas attacks on the Kurds. If the estimate of 500,000 dead as a result of sanctions is correct, that would be the equivalent of snuffing out the lives of all the babies and young children in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

The fact that bin Laden greatly exaggerated the sanctions death toll does not absolve the U.S. government. Within a year or two after the end of the Gulf War, it should have been obvious that sanctions would neither turn Saddam into a Boy Scout nor bring him to his knees. The U.S. government knew the sanctions were scourging the Iraqi people. Three U.S. presidents escaped any liability for the Iraqi deaths caused by U.S. policy. The people who worked in the World Trade Center may not have been so lucky.

Rather than continue to pirouette on the world stage as a great benefactor, the Bush administration should open the files and let everyone learn what the U.S. government knew — and when it knew it — about the devastation sanctions wreaked upon Iraq. This information could provide a healthy antidote against future salvation manias by American presidents.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

http://cdn.topdocumentaryfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/conspiracy-theory.jpg

 

[kimber22]

Very emotional and passionate opinions.

Not facts.

Did we destabilize the region? Sure.

Was it a fuck up? Yew betcha!

Did it allow religious lunatics to rise to power? Yep.

Did the US commit genocide against the Iraqi people? No....not even close to the point a couple of bleeding heart opinions is the best support you have for you claims.

US soldiers aren't over there executing people by the thousands, raping/enslaving women and decapitating/burning children alive wholesale.

I know you wish they were, but that's just not reality.

You're wrong.

100% agree! This is a summary worth reading.

 

[underguy1]

http://cdn.topdocumentaryfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/conspiracy-theory.jpg

Here you go, loser.

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/declassdocs/dia/19950901/950901_511rept_91.html

File: 950901_511rept_91.txt
Page: 91
Total Pages: 1
IRAQ WATER TREATMMENT VULNERABILITIES (U)

Filename:511rept.91


DTG: 221900Z JAN 91

FM: DIA WASHINGTON DC
VIA: NMIST NET
TO: CENTCOM
INFO: CENTAF
UK STRIKE COMMAND
MARCENT
18 ABC
NAVCENT
SOCCENT
7TH CORPS
ANKARA



SUBJECT: IRAQ WATER TREATMMENT VULNERABILITIES (U)
AS OF 18 JAN 91 KEY JUDGMENTS.

1. IRAO DEPENDS ON IMPORTING-SPECIALIZED EQUIPMENT-AND
SOME CHEMICALS TO PURIFY ITS WATER SUPPLY, MOST OF WHICH IS
HEAVILY MINERALIZED AND FREQUENTLY BRACKISH TO SALINE.
2. WITH NO DOMESTIC SOURCES OF BOTH WATER TREATMENT REPLACEMENT PARTS AND SOME ESSENTIAL CHEMICALS, IRAO WILL
CONTINUE ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT UNITED NATIONS SANCTIONS TO
IMPORT THESE VITAL COMMODITIES.
3. FAILING TO SECURE SUPPLIES WILL RESULT IN A SHORTAGE OF
PURE DRINKING WATER FOR MUCH OF THE POPULATION. THIS COULD LEAD
TO INCREASED INCIDENCES, IF NOT EPIDEMICS, OF DISEASE AND TO
CERTAIN PURE-WATER-DEPENDENT INDUSTRIES BECOMING INCAPACITATED,
INCLUDING PETRO CHEMICALS, FERTILIZERS, PETROLEUM REFINING,
ELECTRONICS,PHARMACEUTICALS, FOOD PROCESSING, TEXTILES, CONCRETE
CONSTRUCTION,AND THERMAL POWERPLANTS.
4. IRAQ'S OVERALL WATER TREATMENT CAPABILITY WILL SUFFER A
SLOW DECLINE, RATHER THAN A PRECIPITOUS HALT, AS DWINDLING
SUPPLIES AND CANNIBALIZED PARTS ARE CONCENTRATED AT HIGHER
PRIORITY LOCATIONS. ALTHOUGH IRAQ IS ALREADY EXPERIENCING A LOSS
OF WATERTREATMENT CAPABILITY, IT PROBABLY WILL TAKE AT LEAST SIX
MONTHS (TO JUNE 1991) BEFORE THE SYSTEM IS FULLY DEGRADED.
5. UNLESS WATER TREATMENT SUPPLIES ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE
UNSANCTIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS, NO ADEQUATE SOLUTION
EXISTS FOR IRAQ'S WATER PURIFICATION DILEMMA, SINCE NO SUITABLE
ALTERNATIVES,INCLUDING LOOTING SUPPLIES FROM KUWAIT,
SUFFICIENTLY MEET IRAQI NEEDS.)
6. IRAQI WATER QUALITY. SURFACE WATER FROM THE TIGRIS AND
EUPHRATES RIVER SYSTEM SUPPLIES ABOUT HALF OF IRAQ'S LAND
AREA,INCLUDING URBAN AREAS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES.
IRAQ'S REMAINING AREA, PRIMARILY RURAL, RELIES ON GROUND WATER
FROM WELLS.THE QUALITY OF UNTREATED WATER THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY
VARIES WIDELY BUT GENERALLY IS POOR. HEAVY MINERALIZATION,
SUSPENDED SOLIDS AND,FREQUENTLY, HIGH SALINITY CHARACTERIZE
IRAQ'S WATER SUPPLY.ALTHoUGH IRAQ HAS MADE A CONSIDERABLE EFFORT
TO SUPPLY PURE WATER TO ITS POPULATION, THE WATER TREATMENT
SYSTEM WAS UNRELIABLE EVEN BEFORE THE UNITED NATIONS SANCTIONS
SALINITY CHARACTERIZE IRAO'S WATER SUPPLY.ALTHOUGH IRAQ HAS
MADE A CONSIDERABLE EFFORT TO SUPPLY PURE WATER TO ITS
POPULATION, THE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WAS UNRELIABLE EVEN
BEFORE THE UNITED NATIONS SANCTIONS WERE IMPOSED. MOST IRAOIS
PREFER TO DRINK IMPORTED BOTTLED WATER.
7. THE MINERALS IN THE WATER INCLUDE CONCENTRATIONS OF
CARBONATES, SULPHATES, CHLORIDES, AND, IN SOME LOCATIONS,
NITRATES.DRINKING HEAVILY MINERALIZED WATER COULD RESULT IN
DIARRHEA AND,OVER THE LONG TERM, STONES FORMING WITHIN THE
BODY. FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS, PIPES AND OTHER EOUIPMENT
WOULD SCALE (BECOME ENCRUSTED), EVENTUALLY CAUSING PLANTS TO
SHUT DOWN. SCALING IN BOILERS WOULD CAUSE EXPLOSIONS IF NOT
PREVENTED OR REMOVED.
8. MUCH OF IRAO'S GROUND WATER SUPPLIES ARE BRACKISH TO
SALINE. THE,LARGE RESERVOIRS NEAR BAGHDAD--THE THARTHAR, - .
HABBANIYAH, AND AL MILH LAKES--ARE SALINE. SINCE THESE LAKES
SERVE AS CATCH BASINS FOR FLOODS ON THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES
RIVERS, THE IRAOIS MUST REDUCE THE WATER VOLUME IN-THE LAKES
DURING THE LOW-WATER SEASON. EVAPARATlON DURING THE SUMMER -
ACCOMPLISHES THIS IMPART. SINCE REDUCING THE WATER VOLUME IN
THE LAKES ONLY INCREASES SALINITY, THE IRAQIS FLUSH THE LAKES
BY DIVERTING FRESH WATER FROM UP STREAM ON THE TIGRIS AND
EUPHRATES. THE FLOW IS DISCHARGED FURTHER DOWNSTREAM TO AVOID
FILLING THE BASINS. SINCE THE DISCHARGE OCCURS WHERE THE
RIVERS ENTER THE MESOPOTAMIAN PLAIN, THE DISCHARGE INCREASES
THE NATURAL SALINITY OF THE WATERS DOWNSTREAM, AFFECTING
IRRIGATED AGRICULTURAL LANDS IRAQ SPECIALIZES IN -
SALINE-RESISTANT CROPS SUCH AS BARLEr AND DATES) AND URBAN
AREAS, INCLUDING BAGHDAD.THE KARKH WATER TREATMENT PROJECT FOR
WESTERN BAGHDAD HAS AN IN TAKE POINT ABOUT 40 KILOMETERS NORTH
OF BAGHDAD, UPSTREAM FROM WHERE LAKE THARTHAR DISCHARGES INTO
THE TIGRIS. WATER BELOW THE DISCHARGE POINT REQUIRES
DESALINIZATION.
9. AT BASRAH, THE SHATT AL ARAB TENDS TO BE SALINE UNDER
CONDITIONS OF LOW-RIVER WATER VOLUMES AND DEPENDING ON TIDE
AND WIND DIRECTIONS. NORMALLY, THE SHATT AL ARAB AT BASRAH HAS
A SALINITY OF 1,500 TO 2,000 PARTS PER MILLION (PPM). SALINITY
HAS BEEN INCREASING OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS, AND IN THE FALL
1989, THE SALINITY HAD REACHED 6,000 TO 7,000 PPM, HIGHER THAN
EXISTING DESALINIZATION SYSTEMS COULD HANDLE. (OCEAN SEAWATER
IS ABOUT 36,000 PPM OF DISSOLVED SALTS; THE PERSIAN GULF IS
APPROXIMATELY 42,000 PPM.BRACKISH WATER IS A MINIMUM OF 1,000
PPM. THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION STANDARD FOR HUMAN
CONSUMPTION IS 500 PPM OR LESS.GROUND WATER IN IRAO'S LOWER
MESOPOTAMIAN BASIN RANGES FROM 5,000 TO 60,000 PPM, WITH SOME
LOCATIONS REACHING 80,000). SALINE WATER IS UNFIT FOR DRINKING
AND CORRODES INDUSTRIAL PIPES OR OTHER EXPOSED EQUIPMENT.
10. (U) SUSPENDED SOLIDS, PRIMARILY SILT, IN THE TIGRIS AND
EUPHRATES RIVER SYSTEM INCREASE WITH WATER VOLUME. UNLESS
REMOVED FROM THE WATER, THESE PARTICLES WOULD CLOG PIPES AND
FILTERS AND WOULD REQUIRE STRAINING BEFORE CONSUMPTION BY END
USERS.
11. IRAQ'S RIVERS ALSO CONTAIN BIOLOGICAL
MATERIALS,POLLUTANTS, AND ARE LADEN WITH BACTERIA. UNLESS THE



WATER IS PURIFIED WITH CHLORINE EPIDEMICS OF SUCH DISEASES AS
CHOLERA,HEPATITIS, AND TYPHOID COULD OCCUR.)
12. WATER TREATMENT REGIMES. WATER TREATMENT IS SPECIFIC
TO THE IMPURITIES OF THE WATER TREATED AND TO THE APPLICATION
FOR WHICH THE WATER WILL BE USED. THE BASIC PROCESS REQUIRES
CLARIFICATION (REMOVING SUSPENDED SOLIDS), FILTRATION, AND,
FOR
DRINKING AND SOME INDUSTRIAL USES, PURIFICATION. IN IRAQ, THE
PROCESS ALSO INCLUDES DESALINATING AND WATER SOFTENING.
13. CLARIFICATION REQUIRES ADDING FLOCCULANTS AND
COAGULANTS TO THE WATER. THE IRAOIS USE ALUMINUM SULPHATE
ALTHOUGH IRON SULPHATES ARE ACCEPTABLE TO BIND THE SUSPENDED
SOLIDS INTO CLUMPS FOR SETTLING. IF NOT REMOVED, THE
SEDIMENTS, OR SLUDGE, WOULD CLOG THE FILTRATION SYSTEM
(PROBABLY SAND) AND SHUT DOWN THE WATER PURIFICATION PLANT
UNTIL THE CLOGS WERE REMOVED. ALUMINUM SULPHATE SUPPLY LEVELS
ARE KNOWN TO BE CRITICALLY LOW, SINCE IRAQ TRIED AND FAILED TO
OBTAIN PRECURSOR CHEMICALS FROM JORDAN FOR ITS MANUFACTURE.
14. CHLORINATION NORMALY IS ACCOMPLISHED DURING SEVERAL
STAGES OF PURIFICATION, INCLUDING THE INITAL TREATMENT STAGE
TO PREVENT THE EQUIPMENT FROM LIMING AND TO KILL PATHOGENS
JUST PRIOR TO STORING THE FULLY TREATED WATER. THE CHLORINE
USED IN MOST PLANTS IS EITHER SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE, A LIOUID,
OR CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE, A POWDER. IF THEY ARE EQUIPPED WITH
INJECTORS, LOW-CAPACITY PLANTS CAN USE CHLORINE GAS DIRECTLY.
IRAO'S PLANT IN FALLUJA AND THE PC-I PETROCHEMICAL PLANT AT
BASRAH PRODUCE SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE AND, AS A BY-PRODUCT,
CAUSTIC SODA, WHICH IS USED TO ADJUST THE PH OF WATER
SUPPLIES. NORMALLY, BOTH LOCATIONS PRODUCE RELATIVELY SMALL
QUANTITIES OF CHLORINE FOR INDUSTRIAL AND SOME MUNICIPAL USE;
CHLORINE FOR MUNICIPAL SUPPLIES ALSO IS IMPORTED.RECENT
REPORTS INDICATE THE CHLORINE SUPPLY IS CRITICALLY LOW. ITS
IMPORTATION HAS BEEN EMBARGOED, AND BOTH MAIN PRODUCTION
PLANTS EITHER HAD BEEN SHUT DOWN FOR A TIME OR HAVE BEEN
PRODUCING MINIMAL OUTPUTS BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF IMPORTED
CHEMICALS AND THE INABILITY TO REPLACE PARTS. PREVIOUSLY WHEN
SUPPLIES WERE LOW, THE IRAQI SHAVE STOPPED CHLORINATING THE
DRINKING WATER, BUT ONLY FOR SHORT PERIODS. TO RETARD ALGAE
GROWTH, WHICH COULD CLOG PIPES, COPPER SULPHATE NORMALLY IS
ADDED TO THE WATER. BUT THIS PRACTICE HAS NOT BEEN VERIFIED IN
IRAO, AND SUPPLIES OF COPPER SULPHATE ARE UNKNOWN.SULFURIC
ACID TYPICALLY IS ADDED AS WELL, BUT IRAQ PROBABLY CAN PRODUCE
SUFFICIENT SUPPLIES.
15. IRAQ APPARENTLY USES LIME, AT LEAST AT THE NEW KARKH
TREATMENT PLANT, TO SOFTEN WATER. THE LIME PRECIPITATES
COLLOIDAL CARBONATE IMPURITIES FROM THE WATER. SODA ASH AND
ZEOLITES ALSO NORMALLY ARE USED TO REMOVE NONCARBONATE MINERAL
IMPURITIES, BUT THEIR USE IN IRAO HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED.
LOCAL COMPANIES SELL BOTTLED SOFT WATER IN IRAO, SUGGESTING
THAT MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEMS DO NOT NORMALLY SOFTEN WATER.
IRAQ SHOULD HAVE NO SHORTAGES OF LIME. HOWEVER, THE LACK OF
SOFTENING CHEMICALS REPORTEDLY HAS INCAPACITATED THE BOTTLED
SOFT-WATER INDUSTRY.
16. BETWEEN 1982 AND 1990, SOME IRAOI INDUSTRIES INSTALLED
REVERSIBLE ION EXCHANGE ELECTRODIALYSIS MEMBRANE SYSTEMS,

OBTAINED FROM AN AMERICAN SOURCE, TO SOFTEN AND DESALINATE
WATER. THE MEMBRANES LAST 5 TO 7 YEARS AND DO NOT REQUIRE
CHEMICAL PRETREATMENT OF THE WATER. THEY NORMALLY SERVE
SMALLER VOLUME REQUIREMENTS.HOWEVER, A MAJOR OIL REFINERY, AL
DAURA IN BAGHDAD, INSTALLED THIS SYSTEM IN 1985, AND IT
PRODUCES 24,000 CUBIC METERS OF PURIFIED WATER PER DAY.
17. ABOUT ONE QUARTER OF ALL IRAOI WATER SUPPLIED FOR
INDUSTRIAL AND HUMAN CONSUMPTION REQUIRES DESALINIZATION. IRAO
RELIES ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY ON ION EXCHANGE OR REVERSE OSMOSIS
SYSTEMS RATHER THAN MULTISTAGE FLASH UNITS. ION EXCHANGE AND
REVERSE OSMOSIS MEMBRANES ARE SPECIFIC TO THE TYPE OF
EQUIPMENT OF WHICH THEY ARE A COMPONENT, AS ARE THE CHEMICALS
REOUIRED. PREVIOUS IRAQI USE OF SUBSTITUTES HAS NOT BEEN
SATISFACTORY. IRAO REPORTEDLY DEPENDS ON IMPORTED MEMBRANES
AND IMPORTS CHEMICALS FROM SEVERAL SOURCES. IRAQ HAD NOT
COMPLETED THE MAJOR PURCHASE AND DELIVERY OF SPARE MEMBRANES
BEFORE INVADING KUWAIT. ATTEMPTS TO PROCURE MEMBRANES SINCE
THE UN SANCTIONS WERE IMPOSED HAVE FAILED. SINCE THE ATTEMPT
TO IMPORT MEMBRANES CORRESPONED TO THEIR NORMAL REPLACEMENT PERIOD, IRAQ
APPARENTLY DID NOT STOCKPILE ABUNDANT SPACE MEMBRANES OR CHEMICALS AND
PROBABLY HAD NO MORE THAN A 2-MONTH SUPPLY PRIOR TO THE INVASION.
18. POLYAMIDE MEMBRANES WHICH IRAO USES IN SOME
DESALINIZATION EOUIPMENT, DETERIORATE WHEN EXPOSED TO CHLORINE
IONS.PRIOR TO PASSING THROUGH THE MEMBRANE, WAT-ER IS TREATED
WITH SODIUM METABISULPHITE TO REMOVE THE CHLORINE USED IN
PRETREATMENT. THE CHLORINE THEN IS RE-STORED FOR LATER
PURIFICATION. THE STATUS OF SODIUM METABISULPHITE SUPPLIES IS
NOT KNOWN, BUT SUPPLIES PROBABLY ARE DWINDLING, WHICH WILL
ESCALATE FAILURES OF THIS MEMBRANE TYPE.IRAO ALSO USES
CELLULOSE ACETATE MEMBRANES (AN OLD TECHNOLOGY),WHICH HAVE AN
EXCEPTIONALLY SHORT LIFE AND ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO BIOLOGICAL
CONTAMINATION. IRAO REPORTEDLY CAN MANUFACTURE CELLULOSE
MEMBRANES, BUT THE AVAILABILITY OF PRECURSOR STOCKS IS
PROBABLY LOW.IRAQ HAD BEEN ACOUIRING REVERSE ELECTRODIALYSIS
ION EXCHANGE MEMBRANES PRIOR TO THE UN SANCTIONS. HOWEVER,
MOST SYSTEMS USE REVERSE OSMOSIS OR UNIDIRECTIONAL
ELECTRODIALYSIS, WHICH, UNLIKE REVERSE ELECTRODIALYSIS
MEMBRANES, REOUIRE CHEMICALS TO MAKE THEM WORK.)
19. INDUSTRIAL WATER TREATMENT. INDUSTRIES REQUIRE TREATED
WATER, AND THE TYPE OF TREATMENT DEPENDS ON THE
APPLICATION. NORMALLY, SOFTENING AND DESALINIZATION ARE
REOUIRED TO PREVENT PIPE SAND EOUIPMENT FROM CORRODING OR
SCALING. IN THE PETRO CHEMICAL INDUSTRY, WATER USED FOR
COOLING IS PARTIALLY TREATED TO PREVENT SCALING. WATER USED IN
THERMAL POWERPLANTS OR REFINERIES TO PRODUCE STEAM MUST BE
PURE TO PREVENT BOTH CORROSION AND SCALING.OTHERWISE, LOSS OF
CAPABILITY COULD OCCUR WITHIN 2 MONTHS. IN ADDITION, FOOD
PROCESSING, ELECTRONIC, AND, PARTICULARLY,PHARMACEUTICAL
PLANTS REOUIRE EXTREMELY PURE WATER THAT IS FREE FROM
BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINANTS. LARGE INDUSTRIAL PLANTS, INCLUDING
PETROCHEMICAL, REFINING, AND FERTILIZER PLANTS, COLLOCATE
THEIR WATER TREATMENT FACILITIES. TURNKEY CONTRACTORS BUILT
THESE FACILITIES, AND THE PARTS ARE SPECIFIC TO EACH SYSTEM,
WHICH COMPLICATES THEIR REPLACEMENT. THE IRAOIS COULD NOT
MANUFACTURE DUPLICATES AND THEIR IMPORTATION IS EMBARGOED.)
20. IRAQI ALTERNATIVES. IRAQ COULD TRY CONVINCING THE
UNITED NATIONS OR INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES TO EXEMPT WATER
TREATMENT SUPPLIES FROM SANCTIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS. IT
PROBABLY ALSO IS ATTEMPTING TO PURCHASE SUPPLIES BY USING SOME
SYMPATHETIC COUNTRIES AS FRONTS. IF SUCH ATTEMPTS FAIL, IRAQI
ALTERNATIVES ARE NOT ADEOUATE FOR THEIR NATIONAL REOUIREMENTS.
21. VARIOUS IRAOI INDUSTRIES HAVE WATER TREATMENT CHEMICAL
SAND EQUIPMENT ON HAND, IF THEY HAVE NOT ALREADY BEEN CONSUMED
OR BROKEN. IRAO POSSIBLY COULD CANNIBALIZE PARTS OR ENTIRE
SYSTEMS FROM LOWER TO HIGHER PRIORITY PLANTS, AS WELL AS
DIVERT CHEMICALS,SUCH AS CHLORINE. HOWEVER, THIS CAPABILITY
WOULD BE LIMITED AND TEMPORARY. IRAQ PREVIOUSLY HAD ACQUIRED
SEVERAL HUNDRED CONTAINERIZED REVERSE OSMOSIS MODULES FOR '
LOCALIZED USE THAT COULD BE RELOCATED. WITHOUT CHEMICALS AND
REPLACEMENT MEMBRANES, THESE UNITS WHERE EVENTUALLY WOULD BECOME
USELESS. HOWEVER, CONSOLIDATING CHEMICALS OR CANNIBALIZING
PARTS AND MOVING UNITS WHERE NECESSARY COULD SUSTAIN SOME
PURIFICATION OPERATIONS INDUSTRIAL PLANTS THAT ARE INOPERABLE
FOR REASONS-OTHER THAN THE LACK OF WATER TREATMENT SUPPLIES
COULD PROCESS WATER FOR MUNICIPAL NEEDS OR POSSIBLY RELOCATE
THEIR PURIFICATION EOUIPMENT.
22. THE DIFFERENCE IN WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS LIMITS THE
BENEFITS TO IRAQ OF PLUNDERING KUWAIT'S WATER TREATMENT
CHEMICALS. THE KUWAITIS RELY PRIMARILY ON DESALINATING
SEAWATER, AND THEIR WATER NEEDS ARE CONSIDERABLY SMALLER THAN
IRAQ'S. IRAQ COULD NOT USE CHEMICALS INTENDED FOR KUWAITI
WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS, EXCEPT FOR LIMITED QUANTITIES OF
CHLORINE. ATTEMPTS TO CIRCUMVENT THE SANCTIONS TO OBTAIN WATER
TREATMENT CHEMICALS SUGGEST THAT ANY USEFUL SUPPLIES FROM
KUWAIT ALREADY HAVE BEEN LOOTED AND USED.
23. IRAO HAS INSTALLED A PIPELINE FROM THE DOHA
DESALINIZATION PLANT IN KUWAIT THAT CONNECTS WITH DISTRIBUTION
PIPES AT A WATERTREATMENT PLANT NEAR BASRAH. THIS SOURCE OF
PURE WATER APPARENTLY HAS ENABLED THE PC-I PETROCHEMICAL PLANT
TO OPERATE AND TO PRODUCE CHLORINE BY ELECTROLYSIS OF KUWAITI
WATER MIXED WITH PURE SODIUM CHLORIDE. AT LEAST SOME OF THIS
CHLORINE PROBABLY IS USED FOR MUNICIPAL WATER PURIFICATION,
BUT THE OUANTITY PRODUCED WOULD BE INADEOUATE FOR NATIONAL
REOUIREMENTS. MOREOVER, SOME OF THE CHLORINE PROBABLY IS USED
AT THE PC-I PLANT TO MAKE POLYVINYL CHLORIDES TO CREATE THE
PLASTIC SHEETS USED IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. THE USE OF
KUWAITI WATER PROBABLY WILL NOT LAST LONG SINCE THE DOHA PLANT
USES THE MULTISTAGE FLASH DESALINIZATION PROCESS, WHICH
REOUIRES ACID DOSING OR THE ADDITION OF POLYMERS TO PREVENT
SCALING OF THE HEAT EXCHANGES. THE UN SANCTIONS MAY PREVENT
RESUPPLY OF THESE CHEMICALS. INTENSIVE MAINTENANCE ALSO IS
REOUIRED TO KEEP THE UNITS OPERATING, AND THAT PROBABLY WOULD
REOUIRE THE SERVICES OF TRAINED KUWAITI EMPLOYEES SINCE IRAQ
HAS LITTLE EXPERIENCE WITH MULTISTAGE FLASH UNITS.
24. IRAQ'S BEST SOURCES OF QUALITY WATER ARE IN THE
MOUNTAINS OF THE NORTH AND NORTHEAST, WHERE MINERALIZATION AND
SALINITY ARE WITHIN ACCEPTABLE LIMITS. FOR THE SHORT TERM,

IRAO CONCEIVABLY COULD TRUCK WATER FROM THE MOUNTAIN
RESERVOIRS TO URBAN AREAS. BUT THE CAPABILITY TO GAIN
SIGNIFICANT QUANTITIES IS EXTREMELY LIMITED. THE AMOUNT OF PIPE
ON HAND AND THE LACK OF PUMPING STATIONS WOULD LIMIT LAYING
PIPELINES TO THESE RESERVOIRS. MOREOVER, WITHOUT CHLORINE
PURIFICATION, THE WATER STILL WOULD CONTAIN BIOLOGICAL
POLLUTANTS. SOME AFFLUENT IRAQIS COULD OBTAIN THEIR OWN
MINIMALLY ADEQUATE SUPPLY OF GOOD OUALITY WATER FROM NORTHERN
IRAOI SOURCES.IF BOILED, THE WATER COULD BE SAFELY CONSUMED.
POORER IRAQIS AND INDUSTRIES REQUIRING LARGE OUANTITIES OF PURE
WATER WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MEET THEIR NEEDS.
25. PRECIPITATION OCCURS IN IRAQ DURING THE WINTER AND
SPRING,BUT IT FALLS PRIMARILY IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS.
SPORADIC RAINS,SOMETIMES HEAVY , FALL OVER THE LOWER PLAINS.
BUT IRAQ COULD NOT RELY ON RAIN TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE PURE
WATER.
26. THE SALINE OR ALKALINE CONTENT-OF GROUND WATER IN MOST
LOCATIONS WOULD CONSTRAIN DRILLING WELLS IN THE MESOPOTAMIAN
PLAIN TO OBTAIN PURER WATER MOREOVER, MUCH OF THE POPULATION
USES SEPTIC TANKS, AND THE UNDERLYING GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
WOULD CONTAMINATE WELLS IN MANY LOCATIONS.))OUTLOOK)
27. IRAQ WILL SUFFER INCREASING SHORTAGES OF PURIFIED
WATER BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF REOUIRED CHEMICALS AND
DESALINIZATION MEMBRANES. INCIDENCES OF DISEASE, INCLUDING
POSSIBLE EPIDEMICS,WILL BECOME PROBABLE UNLESS THE POPULATION
WERE CAREFUL TO BOIL WATER BEFORE CONSUMPTION, PARTICULARLY
SINCE THE SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM, NEVER A HIGH PRIORITY, WILL
SUFFER THE SAME LOSS OF CAPABILITY WITH THE LACK OF CHLORINE.
LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD AND MEDICINE COULD BE CONTAMINATED. LACK
OF COAGULATION CHEMICALS WILL CAUSE PERIODIC SHUTDOWNS OF
TREATMENT PLANTS FOR UNCLOGGING AND CLEANING FILTERS, CAUSING
INTERRUPTIONS OF WATER SUPPLIES. AS DESALINIZATION EQUIPMENT
BECOMES INOPERABLE, SALINE WATER SOURCES WILL BECOME
INCREASINGLY UNUSABLE. TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT SHUT DOWNS OF
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS THAT RELY ON TREATED WATER WILL
MULTIPLY.CANNIBALIZING LOWER PRIORITY OPERATIONS WILL
ACCELERATE THE TREND.
28. THE ENTIRE IRAOI WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WILL NOT
COLLAPSE PRECIPITOUSLY, BUT ITS CAPABILITIES WILL DECLINE
STEADILY AS DWINDLING SUPPLIES INCREASINGLY ARE DIVERTED TO
HIGHER PRIORITY SITES WITH COMPATIBLE EQUIPMENT. KARKH, IRAO'S
LARGEST WATERTREATMENT PLANT (AND ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST),
WAS DESIGNED TO STORE 30 DAYS OF SUPPLIES ON SITE. THE
QUANTITY OF SUPPLIES, IF ANY, NORMALLY STOCKPILED IN
CENTRALIZED WAREHOUSES BEFORE SHIPMENT TO TREATMENT PLANTS IS
UNKNOWN, BUT A 6 MONTH TO I YEAR SUPPLY OF CHEMICALS IS THE
NORMAL INDUSTRIAL PRACTICE. HOWEVER, CURRENT IRAQI EFFORTS TO
OBTAIN CHEMICALS AND MEMBRANES AND THE INSTALLATION OF A
PIPELINE TO OBTAIN PURE KUWAITI WATER SUGGEST THAT THERE WAS
NOT ADEOUATE STOCKPILING PRIOR TO THE INVASION OF KUWAIT. SOME
CHEMICALS ARE DEPLETED OR ARE NEARING DEPLETION, AND OLDER
MEMBRANES ARE NOT BEING REPLACED ON SCHEDULE. CONSEOUENTLY,
IRAQ PROBABLY IS USING UNTREATED OR PARTIALLY TREATED WATER IN
SOME LOCATIONS. FULL DEGRADATION OF THE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM



PROBABLY WILL TAKE AT LEAST ANOTHER 6 MONTHS.

[ (b)(2) ]

 

[kimber22]

The destruction of Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and now Syria are not 'fuck ups'. They are policy.

The rise of Salaafist nut jobs is not an unintended consequence. It is a strategy. The mass murder of Iraqis since at the latest 1991 is US policy.
The health crises, the poverty, the privation, the lack of medicines, food and resources were and are deliberately inflicted on the civilian population.

Jut because your stupid media doesn't tell you that it doesn't mean it isn't real.
You poor, stupid, ignorant, racist loser.

Where has been mass murder in Iraq? (okay, Saddam did such a thing, of course, but what's the thing for the US - if a Middle-East dictator uses gas against his people?)
Somalia? That's the one country in the world where the US have nothing to do with the chaos at all...
Libya? That's one of the richest countries in the world. They have oil. They could buy all the medicine for their people they want. Gaddafi just didn't do it...
Yemen? What do the US have to do with Yemen? That's an a-class proxy-war Saudi-Arabia vs. Iran... The US are not even there...
And what is the US-policy in Syria? They don't even have one...

No, that's complete nonsense what you're writing...

I suggest you not spam this thread anymore full with your crap but rather read some basic things about these countries...

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Here you go, loser.

i fixed your post. y'know, i wonder how obnoxious you'd be if you were face-to-face with those you insult on here?

interesting idea, hey?

...wanker.

 

[underguy1]

Where has been mass murder in Iraq? (okay, Saddam did such a thing, of course, but what's the thing for the US - if a Middle-East dictator uses gas against his people?)
Somalia? That's the one country in the world where the US have nothing to do with the chaos at all...
Libya? That's one of the richest countries in the world. They have oil. They could buy all the medicine for their people they want. Gaddafi just didn't do it...
Yemen? What do the US have to do with Yemen? That's an a-class proxy-war Saudi-Arabia vs. Iran... The US are not even there...
And what is the US-policy in Syria? They don't even have one...

No, that's complete nonsense what you're writing...

I suggest you not spam this thread anymore full with your crap but rather read some basic things about these countries...

You are a gullible imbecile.

 

[underguy1]

i fixed your post. y'know, i wonder how obnoxious you'd be if you were face-to-face with those you insult on here?

interesting idea, hey?

...wanker.

Typical right wing hypocrite.

You insult people and then whine like pathetic little bitches when you get some back.

You're always unable to support your beliefs with logic or reasoning, so you resort to ad hominem and whining.

You're a neanderthal.

 

[kimber22]

You are a gullible imbecile.

I'm happy I'm not native English, because this must be some kind of offence.

No, all I'm saying is you have no faint idea about the countries you're talking about. We (in Europe) have all the guys here: The Somali refugees (for 20 years), the Syrian refugees (for 5 years now), from Libya there comes the main refugee-route via the Mediterranean to Italy, and so on.

No, not lecture a European about the Middle East

 

[underguy1]

I'm happy I'm not native English, because this must be some kind of offence.

No, all I'm saying is you have no faint idea about the countries you're talking about. We (in Europe) have all the guys here: The Somali refugees (for 20 years), the Syrian refugees (for 5 years now), from Libya there comes the main refugee-route via the Mediterranean to Italy, and so on.

No, not lecture a European about the Middle East

You're a racist buffoon too.

A true moron.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Typical right wing hypocrite.

You insult people and then whine like pathetic little bitches when you get some back.

You're always unable to support your beliefs with logic or reasoning, so you resort to ad hominem and whining.

You're a neanderthal.

you know me? dood, you don't have the first clue about my political leanings. as for insults? pot/kettle.

i see you didn't comment on the face-to-face mention i made. you'd shit your undercrackers in a fight - wouldn't you, mate?

 

[underguy1]

Aren't you the tough guy?

Is violence how you win arguments usually?

Mind you, I can't see you winning them the usual way.

 

[DeYaKen]

Wow! what a lot of name calling. You guys are just so grown up.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'm happy I'm not native English, because this must be some kind of offence.

No, all I'm saying is you have no faint idea about the countries you're talking about. We (in Europe) have all the guys here: The Somali refugees (for 20 years), the Syrian refugees (for 5 years now), from Libya there comes the main refugee-route via the Mediterranean to Italy, and so on.

No, not lecture a European about the Middle East

I believe if you took some kind of census, you would find more immigrants, legal or otherwise, in the US than in any other country.

ETA: Yes; here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration

Statistics

The global population of immigrants has grown since 1990 but has remained around 3% of the world's population.
As of 2015, the number of international migrants has reached 244 million worldwide, which reflects a 41% increase since 2000. One third of the world's international migrants are living in just 20 countries. The largest number of international migrants live in the United States, with 19% of the world's total. Germany and Russia host 12 million migrants each, taking the second and third place in countries with the most migrants worldwide. Saudi Arabia hosts 10 million migrants, followed by the United Kingdom (9 million) and the United Arab Emirates (8 million).[8]

Between 2000 and 2015, Asia added more international migrants than any other major area in the world, gaining 26 million. Europe added the second largest with about 20 million. In most parts of the world, migration occurs between countries that are located within the same major area.[8]

In 2015, the number of international migrants below the age of 20 reached 37 million, while 177 million are between the ages of 20 and 64. International migrants living in Africa were the youngest, with a median age of 29, followed by Asia (35 years), and Latin America/Caribbean (36 years), while migrants were older in Northern America (42 years), Europe (43 years), and Oceania (44 years).[8]

Nearly half (43%) of all international migrants originate in Asia, and Europe was the birthplace of the second largest number of migrants (25%), followed by Latin America (15%). India has the largest diaspora in the world (16 million people), followed by Mexico (12 million) and Russia (11 million).[8]

 

[kimber22]

I believe if you took some kind of census, you would find more immigrants, legal or otherwise, in the US than in any other country.

ETA: Yes; here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration

Oh, I'm not talking about "migration". I'm talking about "refugees".

 

[kimber22]

Statistics The global population of immigrants has grown since 1990 but has remained around 3% of the world's population.

But help me with the statistics: How many Afghan refugees have you taken in the US over the last let's say 10 or 20 years?

You've been involved in both wars in Afghanistan. In the first 1980+ you supplied the Taliban with Stingers against the Russians, the second war 2001+ you started all by yourself. And now the country is a total mess.

Now guess what: What do you think is one of the biggest refugee-groups in Europe? Yes. It's Afghans... Why might that be the case?

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Aren't you the tough guy?

Is violence how you win arguments usually?

Mind you, I can't see you winning them the usual way.

again, you know nothing about me. and i'd say i'm winning this one, dood.

cue your next rant and rave.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Oh, I'm not talking about "migration". I'm talking about "refugees".

How do you make a distinction between the two groups? There are those who flee oppression and there are also those who just want better lives for themselves and their families.

I would be willing to bet the rent the US has taken in more refugees in the last 60 years than has been taken in by any other nation. But, once again, this may depend on the definition of "refugee."

 

[BotanyBoy]

But that is precisely what the U.S. government did, with malice aforethought. It "destroyed, removed, or rendered useless" Iraq's "drinking water installations and supplies." The sanctions, imposed for a decade largely at the insistence of the United States, constitute a violation of the Geneva Convention. They amount to a systematic effort to, in the DIA’s own words, "fully degrade" Iraq's water sources.

http://www.progressive.org/news/200...us-intentionally-destroyed-iraqs-water-supply

That might mean something if we didn't spend so much money/lives building modern water treatment facilities for them.

Most Iraqi people had never even seen sanitary/clean water until we showed up.

NEXT!

 

[underguy1]

again, you know nothing about me. and i'd say i'm winning this one, dood.

cue your next rant and rave.

Are you serious?