10 years on and those pricks in Iraq have not thanked us for trying all our new weapons out on their country. We gave them some new cancers for their doctors to work with. Split the country into tribes again. Got rid of that bad man Saddam. Then those asses decided to photoshop an intimate picture of one of us with him. Like we were his friend at one time. Sheesh! Man, we were stupid to leave all that depleted uranium there incase they can pull it out of the ground and water sources and make a bomb to use on us. Well until they say thank you , I think they got all they deserved! They should take a page out of Pakistan and see how to really cowtail to us. At least they keep their country in check.
The poison from the poison stream caught up to you ELEVEN years ago and you floated out of here. Sept. 14, 08
this is just shocking. more evidence or war crimes committed by the us and the "coalition of the willing" with the use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium. these sorts of munitions should be banned, and the use of such weapons should be considered a crime against humanity. i was gonna post pics but decided it was not a great idea. people need to see them though.
don't forget to check out the video on the linked page...
Iraq War Anniversary: Birth Defects And Cancer Rates At Devastating High In Basra And Fallujah (VIDEO)
Ten years after the start of the U.S. invasion in Iraq, doctors in some of the Middle Eastern nation's cities are witnessing an abnormally high number of cases of cancer and birth defects. Scientists suspect the rise is tied to the use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus in military assaults.
On the war's ten-year anniversary, Democracy Now! spoke with Dahr Jamail, an Al Jazeera reporter who recently returned from Iraq. Jamail recounts meeting Dr. Samira Alani, a doctor in the city of Fallujah focusing on the issue of birth defects.
She said it's common now in Fallujah for newborns to come out with massive multiple systemic defects, immune problems, massive central nervous system problems, massive heart problems, skeletal disorders, babies being born with two heads, babies being born with half of their internal organs outside of their bodies, cyclops babies literally with one eye -- really, really, really horrific nightmarish types of birth defects.
Jamail says that the current rate of birth defects for the city of Fallujah has surpassed those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the nuclear attacks at the end of World War II.
Echoing Jamail's findings, a September 2012 study published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology that focused on maternity hospitals in the cities of Basra and Fallujah recorded a devastating number of birth defects in the past decade. The study also indicated that childhood leukemia and other types of cancers are on the rise.
The study opens:
Between October 1994 and October 1995, the number of birth defects per 1,000 live births in Al Basrah Maternity Hospital was 1.37. In 2003, the number of birth defects in Al Basrah Maternity Hospital was 23 per 1,000 livebirths. Within less than a decade, the occurrence of congenital birth defects increased by an astonishing 17-fold in the same hospital.
As David Kenner notes in Foreign Policy, the numbers of miscarriages and birth defects are much higher than before the start of the war and are also "wildly out of proportion" to numbers collected in the rest of the world.
Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the 2012 study and a toxicologist at the University of Michigan, told The Independent in 2012 that there is "compelling evidence" to connect the growing number of defects at birth to the military assaults in Basra and Fallujah.
In a new op-ed for Al Jazeera, Savabieasfahani writes that the cancer and birth defect "epidemic" constitutes an "extraordinary public health emergency in Iraq" and that large-scale testing of the environment in the affected cities is of utmost urgency.
Watch Democracy Now!'s interview Dahr Jamail in the video above, and see the Democracy Now! website for more coverage.
this is just shocking. more evidence or war crimes committed by the us and the "coalition of the willing" with the use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium. these sorts of munitions should be banned, and the use of such weapons should be considered a crime against humanity. i was gonna post pics but decided it was not a great idea. people need to see them though.
This has been going on long before Iraq, Clinton used the same shit in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia.
Yep, during Clinton, after Iraq war 1 with the enforcement of the "no-fly zones" ... There were more bombing sorties flown after the war than during it. One congressman even said "we're down to the last outhouse here". Depleted Uranium weapons were used and the radioactivity bonded to sand and cancer rates had skyrocketed, before Iraq 2 . That was "gulf war syndrome". It affected children the most. Coupled with sanctions, it led to an epidemic. There was an estimate that 500000 children had died in Iraq. Madeleine albright's quote was "we think the price is worth it".
“We the people are the rightful masters of bothCongress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln
10 years ago a baby was brought from Iraq to Atl for surgery for Spina bifida
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
10 years ago a baby was brought from Iraq to Atl for surgery for Spina bifida
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
And just think how many MORE Iraqis would be alive had we NOT invaded. :roll:
10 years on and those pricks in Iraq have not thanked us for trying all our new weapons out on their country. We gave them some new cancers for their doctors to work with. Split the country into tribes again. Got rid of that bad man Saddam. Then those asses decided to Photoshop an intimate picture of one of us with him. Like we were his friend at one time. Sheesh! Man, we were stupid to leave all that depleted uranium there in case they can pull it out of the ground and water sources and make a bomb to use on us. Well until they say thank you , I think they got all they deserved! They should take a page out of Pakistan and see how to really cow tail to us. At least they keep their country in check.
It really reads like you lived through it personally. :shock:
Everyone should hear this. Honesty is ... refreshing.
Thinking and knowing are different things. which is it?
10 years ago a baby was brought from Iraq to Atl for surgery for Spina bifida
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
And just think how many MORE Iraqis would be alive had we NOT invaded. :roll:
Why? What difference does over 1 million dead, and 5 million refugees make, when we can conveniently wipe the slate clean with this one story about a girl being taken care of in the good ole U.S of A?
10 years ago a baby was brought from Iraq to Atl for surgery for Spina bifida
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
And just think how many MORE Iraqis would be alive had we NOT invaded. :roll:
Why? What difference does over 1 million dead, and 5 million refugees make, when we can conveniently wipe the slate clean with this one story about a girl being taken care of in the good ole U.S of A?
It really doesn't make sense to me either Byrnzie. I know you have way more of a perspective on this than me.
10 years ago a baby was brought from Iraq to Atl for surgery for Spina bifida
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
And just think how many MORE Iraqis would be alive had we NOT invaded. :roll:
Why? What difference does over 1 million dead, and 5 million refugees make, when we can conveniently wipe the slate clean with this one story about a girl being taken care of in the good ole U.S of A?
Hey Steve, it's ok buddy cuz it was soldiers that did it! I mean, 1,000,000 dead Iraqis vs 1 saved young girl! I'd take that trade off...... :roll:
Hmmm,why do some not know how to handle one heart warming story in the midst
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
Hmmm,why do some not know how to handle one heart warming story in the midst
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
You got 999,999 more for us? We do see the good in the story, but with "all the sadness" how could it be "everywhere?", feels a little cheap.
Hmmm,why do some not know how to handle one heart warming story in the midst
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
You got 999,999 more for us? We do see the good in the story, but with "all the sadness" how could it be "everywhere?", feels a little cheap.
Of course it is everywhere, that is the balance.
Again a positive heart warming story is all, you will take it the way you do,
you will take something from it or not. I took a lot from it.
Hmmm,why do some not know how to handle one heart warming story in the midst
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
You got 999,999 more for us? We do see the good in the story, but with "all the sadness" how could it be "everywhere?", feels a little cheap.
Of course it is everywhere, that is the balance.
Again a positive heart warming story is all, you will take it the way you do,
you will take something from it or not. I took a lot from it.
With all due respect,
You are trying to sway the minds of readers emotionally.
Playing the Pathos card again
as great a story as it is, it does not justify the atrocities we have committed in the sovereign nation of Iraq. One good story does not make up for the bloodshed and your story is just odd here and in this context....
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
You got 999,999 more for us? We do see the good in the story, but with "all the sadness" how could it be "everywhere?", feels a little cheap.
Of course it is everywhere, that is the balance.
Again a positive heart warming story is all, you will take it the way you do,
you will take something from it or not. I took a lot from it.
With all due respect,
You are trying to sway the minds of readers emotionally.
Playing the Pathos card again
as great a story as it is, it does not justify the atrocities we have committed in the sovereign nation of Iraq. One good story does not make up for the bloodshed and your story is just odd here and in this context....
As you were.
No just sharing a heartwarming story I saw moments before I saw this thread.
Who said anything about justifying or making up for?
…..’cause all any thread about soaring infant mortality and severe birth defect rates needs is just a little ray of sunshine.…..whatever helps us sleep at night, right?
And that’s why these posts are somewhat offensive – the OP topic was, and is still being, ignored completely. Trying to put a positive spin on occupation, war crimes, and suffering children is…not cool, to put it nicely. I don't see a single word of condemnation towards the people who caused this massive ongoing tragedy, nor a word of sympathy for the victims…..just one lil positive story about those benevolent servicemen.
btw - “servicemen”….that term cracks me up. Like a bunch of fuckin janitors n cable guys went to Iraq to set up charities for sick Iraqi kids.
Hmmm,why do some not know how to handle one heart warming story in the midst
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
…..’cause all any thread about soaring infant mortality and severe birth defect rates needs is just a little ray of sunshine.…..whatever helps us sleep at night, right?
And that’s why these posts are somewhat offensive – the OP topic was, and is still being, ignored completely. Trying to put a positive spin on occupation, war crimes, and suffering children is…not cool, to put it nicely. I don't see a single word of condemnation towards the people who caused this massive ongoing tragedy, nor a word of sympathy for the victims…..just one lil positive story about those benevolent servicemen.
btw - “servicemen”….that term cracks me up. Like a bunch of fuckin janitors n cable guys went to Iraq to set up charities for sick Iraqi kids.
thanks for bringing attention to the fact that op has been ignored and this has mutated into another thread about having empathy for the people doing the killing :fp:
yes, as if one heartwarming story cancels out an entire generation having an abnormally large number of severe birth defects, sickness, and suffering... try telling that to the iraqis who are forced to bear witness to that. we had no fucking business even going into iraq. history had proven that, and i was right.... i should have posted the pics, perhaps it would have spurred the discussion i wanted to have on this topic. all of us would have had to bear witness to that, to those photos.... those things that were the outcomes of actions done in OUR names....nobody even read or commented on the links, they just tried to justify the war crimes that were committed in OUR names. :fp:
it is as if people are trying to discount the concept of cause
> effect and outcomes/consequences, in favor of diverting attention away from those outcomes. because doing so makes us feel better about it somehow...
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Yes a positive perspective is very important in life. To listen to some good and hold onto it.
Who knows it might even inspire one's own heart to do good as these servicemen did.
Yes a positive perspective is very important in life. To listen to some good and hold onto it.
Who knows it might even inspire one's own heart to do good as these servicemen did.
:fp:
this is not about one serviceman!!
this is about the abnormally high (higher that hiroshima and nagasaki after the nuclear attacks) number of terrible birth defects which are a direct result of your "servicemen" using depleted uranium and white phorphorus munitions.
please refer to the original post!
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
…..’cause all any thread about soaring infant mortality and severe birth defect rates needs is just a little ray of sunshine.…..whatever helps us sleep at night, right?
And that’s why these posts are somewhat offensive – the OP topic was, and is still being, ignored completely. Trying to put a positive spin on occupation, war crimes, and suffering children is…not cool, to put it nicely. I don't see a single word of condemnation towards the people who caused this massive ongoing tragedy, nor a word of sympathy for the victims…..just one lil positive story about those benevolent servicemen.
btw - “servicemen”….that term cracks me up. Like a bunch of fuckin janitors n cable guys went to Iraq to set up charities for sick Iraqi kids.
Actually they did not set up a charity ... they sought out a charity that helps kids worldwide.
This is not a positive spin on war it stands in and of its self. Good things are made to happen by good people.
It's ok to feel them, in fact it is just as important to feel them as it is to be aware of atrocities.
Hanan Ali, seven days old and weighing 2 kilos, was born premature with birth defects at the Al Alwya Pediatric hospital in this November 15, 2003 file photo from Baghdad, Iraq. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
March 25, 2013
The Iraq War may be over, but the casualties continue for Iraqi couples trying to have children without life-threatening birth defects.
An apparent rise in Iraqi birth defects has left parents, doctors and researchers scrambling for answers – and wondering whether there's a link between the war and babies born with deformities that often render them unable to survive until their first birthday.
"They [parents] feel desperate," Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a reproductive toxicologist who used to work at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told ABCNews.com. She traveled to Iraq's Fallujah General Hospital in 2010 to research the birth defects and co-authored studies in 2010 and 2012. "One major problem we had was that there weren't enough families who had normal children, and therefore we ended up with fewer normal family studies."
Savabieasfahani and her colleagues concluded that many Iraqi babies were born with congenital heart defects, spina bifida and other deformities because their parents had high levels of lead, mercury and uranium levels in their hair, nails and teeth. They suggested that the toxins came from airborne pollutants released during the Iraq War.
"Toxic metals such as mercury (Hg) and Pb [lead] are an integral part of war ammunition and are extensively used in the making of bullets and bombs," it says in the results section of the study.
However, the U.S. Department of Defense believes the evidence is insufficient to determine whether war pollutants caused a rise in birth defects, said department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith. For example, researchers did not account for whether mothers had adequate nutrition or access to medical care during pregnancy, and they did not always consider whether the parents were cousins, she said.
"The studies have instead relied on the occurrence of conflict during specified years, and then presumed exposure of individuals to specific munitions," Smith told ABCNews.com. "The studies have also presumed specific health effects from the claimed exposures without benefit of any scientific evidence proving the association of health effects with those exposures."
Savabieasfahani collected tissue samples from 56 families at Fallujah General Hospital to see whether parents of babies with birth defects had more lead and mercury in their bodies than parents of babies without birth defects. Savabieasfahani's co-author, Dr. Muhsin Al-Sabbak, collected similar data for 28 families at the Al Basrah Maternity Hospital, where he is a gynecologist and obstetrician.
They concluded that parents of children with birth defects had higher levels of lead, mercury and uranium than parents of normal children.
Savabieasfahani also wrote in her 2010 study that birth defects were present in 15 percent of all Fallujah births. (They make up 3 percent of births in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
However, the Federal Ministry of Health of Iraq and the World Health Organization have yet to release their joint study exploring the prevalence of birth defects in Iraq. Its results are expected to be published this spring. The study is a response to smaller, independent studies about birth defects, and an increased number of birth defect reports submitted to the ministry, according to the World Health Organization's website.
Savabieasfahani said it was sometimes difficult to persuade parents to participate in her study because birth defects are a source of shame in Fallujah. As such, she thinks birth defects and miscarriages may be underestimated.
Al-Sabbak, who is based in Basrah, Iraq, told ABCNews.com he is sure that more of his patients have either given birth to babies with multiple birth defects or suffered multiple miscarriages, and that many of them lived in areas where they would have been exposed to pollution from the war.
One of Al-Sabbak's patients had 19 miscarriages, Savabieasfahani said.
"They're actually asking whether they should stop conceiving," Al-Sabbak said. "They do ask me, 'What am I going to do?' I don't have the answer."
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Yes a positive perspective is very important in life. To listen to some good and hold onto it.
Who knows it might even inspire one's own heart to do good as these servicemen did.
:fp:
this is not about one serviceman!!
this is about the abnormally high (higher that hiroshima and nagasaki after the nuclear attacks) number of terrible birth defects which are a direct result of your "servicemen" using depleted uranium and white phorphorus munitions.
please refer to the original post!
yes I read your post and have explained how and why I included what I heard Sunday morning.
It stands as only a heart warming story that came from Iraq. Take from it what you will.
For me I did not take it as much about the servicemen involved as I did the life saved.
Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants, compared to a year ago, and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.
Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.
A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.
"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."
The rise in frequency is stark – from two admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."
After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.
The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.
Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's children's ward, this week urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments, most of which he said had been "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy.
Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.
Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.
"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."
The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.
Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.
The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.
Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said: "With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal, they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital anomaly – it is an acquired disease."
Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq's health ministry remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to the city's pressing needs.
The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
We have committed too many atrocities under false pretenses. Atrocities that will have consequences for generations to come for the victims.
the attitude is, "Well, it didn't happen to me, my babies are being born normal, carry on..."
It's harder for people to face the truth and consequence of their actions than to look the other way and ignore this truth. A nice story is always a bonus to 'show otherwise'.
Comments
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
The poison from the poison stream caught up to you ELEVEN years ago and you floated out of here. Sept. 14, 08
I can't look at that video. I'm trying to answer your question. with a question. What did Saddam do?
This is my example http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/worl ... 715059.ece
it's an article not a disturbing video. I want to quote Gandhi. Will we ever know what Iraqis think? Some are happy Some are pissed.
Yep, during Clinton, after Iraq war 1 with the enforcement of the "no-fly zones" ... There were more bombing sorties flown after the war than during it. One congressman even said "we're down to the last outhouse here". Depleted Uranium weapons were used and the radioactivity bonded to sand and cancer rates had skyrocketed, before Iraq 2 . That was "gulf war syndrome". It affected children the most. Coupled with sanctions, it led to an epidemic. There was an estimate that 500000 children had died in Iraq. Madeleine albright's quote was "we think the price is worth it".
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/7/30/d ... lbright_on
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/28/rep-hunter-subsidy-for-fertilizer-company-crazy/?page=all
this because of service men who got involved and arranged for a charity to help out.
She is 10 now, a lovely girl. This a heart warming story.
If the servicemen had not ben there she would have died within months.
And just think how many MORE Iraqis would be alive had we NOT invaded. :roll:
It really reads like you lived through it personally. :shock:
Everyone should hear this. Honesty is ... refreshing.
Thinking and knowing are different things. which is it?
Why? What difference does over 1 million dead, and 5 million refugees make, when we can conveniently wipe the slate clean with this one story about a girl being taken care of in the good ole U.S of A?
It really doesn't make sense to me either Byrnzie. I know you have way more of a perspective on this than me.
Hey Steve, it's ok buddy cuz it was soldiers that did it! I mean, 1,000,000 dead Iraqis vs 1 saved young girl! I'd take that trade off...... :roll:
of all the sadness? Merely a humanitarian effort, human to human.
There was no hidden meaning for my posting, there was no point, there was no irony,
just one story with a happy ending, made negative Why? :?
I had seen that on the am local news yesterday morning...
the 10th anniversary of a baby's life saved, it touched my heart. Hope it would touch others.
Please don't forget to see the good, it is everywhere.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
You got 999,999 more for us? We do see the good in the story, but with "all the sadness" how could it be "everywhere?", feels a little cheap.
Again a positive heart warming story is all, you will take it the way you do,
you will take something from it or not. I took a lot from it.
Oh, No?
Keeeeeeeeep on lookin I suppose.
:fp:
Wait Johnny, I thought it was cuz of 911, no???? :fp:
With all due respect,
You are trying to sway the minds of readers emotionally.
Playing the Pathos card again
as great a story as it is, it does not justify the atrocities we have committed in the sovereign nation of Iraq. One good story does not make up for the bloodshed and your story is just odd here and in this context....
As you were.
Who said anything about justifying or making up for?
Just let your heart be touched by one thing good.
And that’s why these posts are somewhat offensive – the OP topic was, and is still being, ignored completely. Trying to put a positive spin on occupation, war crimes, and suffering children is…not cool, to put it nicely. I don't see a single word of condemnation towards the people who caused this massive ongoing tragedy, nor a word of sympathy for the victims…..just one lil positive story about those benevolent servicemen.
btw - “servicemen”….that term cracks me up. Like a bunch of fuckin janitors n cable guys went to Iraq to set up charities for sick Iraqi kids.
It's called Perspective: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Perspective?s=t
yes, as if one heartwarming story cancels out an entire generation having an abnormally large number of severe birth defects, sickness, and suffering... try telling that to the iraqis who are forced to bear witness to that. we had no fucking business even going into iraq. history had proven that, and i was right.... i should have posted the pics, perhaps it would have spurred the discussion i wanted to have on this topic. all of us would have had to bear witness to that, to those photos.... those things that were the outcomes of actions done in OUR names....nobody even read or commented on the links, they just tried to justify the war crimes that were committed in OUR names. :fp:
it is as if people are trying to discount the concept of cause
> effect and outcomes/consequences, in favor of diverting attention away from those outcomes. because doing so makes us feel better about it somehow...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Who knows it might even inspire one's own heart to do good as these servicemen did.
this is not about one serviceman!!
this is about the abnormally high (higher that hiroshima and nagasaki after the nuclear attacks) number of terrible birth defects which are a direct result of your "servicemen" using depleted uranium and white phorphorus munitions.
please refer to the original post!
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
This is not a positive spin on war it stands in and of its self. Good things are made to happen by good people.
It's ok to feel them, in fact it is just as important to feel them as it is to be aware of atrocities.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/re ... irl/nW2Tp/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/21/us/iraq-baby-noor-help and people are touched and still wanting to help.
I'm rather surprised the confusion :? it plain and simply touched my heart,
a positive story to share about Iraq.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/birth-defe ... d=18793428
Hanan Ali, seven days old and weighing 2 kilos, was born premature with birth defects at the Al Alwya Pediatric hospital in this November 15, 2003 file photo from Baghdad, Iraq. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
March 25, 2013
The Iraq War may be over, but the casualties continue for Iraqi couples trying to have children without life-threatening birth defects.
An apparent rise in Iraqi birth defects has left parents, doctors and researchers scrambling for answers – and wondering whether there's a link between the war and babies born with deformities that often render them unable to survive until their first birthday.
"They [parents] feel desperate," Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a reproductive toxicologist who used to work at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, told ABCNews.com. She traveled to Iraq's Fallujah General Hospital in 2010 to research the birth defects and co-authored studies in 2010 and 2012. "One major problem we had was that there weren't enough families who had normal children, and therefore we ended up with fewer normal family studies."
Savabieasfahani and her colleagues concluded that many Iraqi babies were born with congenital heart defects, spina bifida and other deformities because their parents had high levels of lead, mercury and uranium levels in their hair, nails and teeth. They suggested that the toxins came from airborne pollutants released during the Iraq War.
"Toxic metals such as mercury (Hg) and Pb [lead] are an integral part of war ammunition and are extensively used in the making of bullets and bombs," it says in the results section of the study.
However, the U.S. Department of Defense believes the evidence is insufficient to determine whether war pollutants caused a rise in birth defects, said department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith. For example, researchers did not account for whether mothers had adequate nutrition or access to medical care during pregnancy, and they did not always consider whether the parents were cousins, she said.
"The studies have instead relied on the occurrence of conflict during specified years, and then presumed exposure of individuals to specific munitions," Smith told ABCNews.com. "The studies have also presumed specific health effects from the claimed exposures without benefit of any scientific evidence proving the association of health effects with those exposures."
Savabieasfahani collected tissue samples from 56 families at Fallujah General Hospital to see whether parents of babies with birth defects had more lead and mercury in their bodies than parents of babies without birth defects. Savabieasfahani's co-author, Dr. Muhsin Al-Sabbak, collected similar data for 28 families at the Al Basrah Maternity Hospital, where he is a gynecologist and obstetrician.
They concluded that parents of children with birth defects had higher levels of lead, mercury and uranium than parents of normal children.
Savabieasfahani also wrote in her 2010 study that birth defects were present in 15 percent of all Fallujah births. (They make up 3 percent of births in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
However, the Federal Ministry of Health of Iraq and the World Health Organization have yet to release their joint study exploring the prevalence of birth defects in Iraq. Its results are expected to be published this spring. The study is a response to smaller, independent studies about birth defects, and an increased number of birth defect reports submitted to the ministry, according to the World Health Organization's website.
Savabieasfahani said it was sometimes difficult to persuade parents to participate in her study because birth defects are a source of shame in Fallujah. As such, she thinks birth defects and miscarriages may be underestimated.
Al-Sabbak, who is based in Basrah, Iraq, told ABCNews.com he is sure that more of his patients have either given birth to babies with multiple birth defects or suffered multiple miscarriages, and that many of them lived in areas where they would have been exposed to pollution from the war.
One of Al-Sabbak's patients had 19 miscarriages, Savabieasfahani said.
"They're actually asking whether they should stop conceiving," Al-Sabbak said. "They do ask me, 'What am I going to do?' I don't have the answer."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
It stands as only a heart warming story that came from Iraq. Take from it what you will.
For me I did not take it as much about the servicemen involved as I did the life saved.
Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/no ... th-defects
Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants, compared to a year ago, and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.
The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.
Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.
A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.
"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies," said Falluja general hospital's director and senior specialist, Dr Ayman Qais. "Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."
The rise in frequency is stark – from two admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."
After several years of speculation and anecdotal evidence, a picture of a highly disturbing phenomenon in one of Iraq's most battered areas has now taken shape. Previously all miscarried babies, including those with birth defects or infants who were not given ongoing care, were not listed as abnormal cases.
The Guardian asked a paediatrician, Samira Abdul Ghani, to keep precise records over a three-week period. Her records reveal that 37 babies with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects, were born during that period at Falluja general hospital alone.
Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the hospital's children's ward, this week urged international experts to take soil samples across Falluja and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments, most of which he said had been "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy.
Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.
Falluja's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.
"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."
The anomalies are evident all through Falluja's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neuro-tube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic.
Falluja was the scene of the only two setpiece battles that followed the US-led invasion. Twice in 2004, US marines and infantry units were engaged in heavy fighting with Sunni militia groups who had aligned with former Ba'athists and Iraqi army elements.
The first battle was fought to find those responsible for the deaths of four Blackwater private security contractors working for the US. The city was bombarded heavily by American artillery and fighter jets. Controversial weaponry was used, including white phosphorus, which the US government admitted deploying.
Statistics on infant tumours are not considered as reliable as new data about nervous system anomalies, which are usually evident immediately after birth. Dr Abdul Wahid Salah, a neurosurgeon, said: "With neuro-tube defects, their heads are often larger than normal, they can have deficiencies in hearts and eyes and their lower limbs are often listless. There has been no orderly registration here in the period after the war and we have suffered from that. But [in relation to the rise in tumours] I can say with certainty that we have noticed a sharp rise in malignancy of the blood and this is not a congenital anomaly – it is an acquired disease."
Despite fully funding the construction of the new hospital, a well-equipped facility that opened in August, Iraq's health ministry remains largely disfunctional and unable to co-ordinate a response to the city's pressing needs.
The government's lack of capacity has led Falluja officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
It's harder for people to face the truth and consequence of their actions than to look the other way and ignore this truth. A nice story is always a bonus to 'show otherwise'.