Iraq: Stories You May Have Missed

You may have missed it amid the AIG-bonus furor--even President Obama did not mention it during his recent press conference-- but last week marked six years since the start of the Iraq War.

After six years and more than 4,000 U.S. casualties, the Iraq War seems to have disappeared from the national conversation. Violence in Iraq is down sharply when compared to 2006 and 2007 levels; however, it still continues at levels that most countries would find alarming. This week at least 15 people have been killed and 30 wounded when a suicide bomber struck a Kurdish funeral tent northeast of Baghdad. Hours earlier, eight people were killed and 10 wounded by a bomb west of the capital.

Part of our job at Mosaic News is to monitor more than 36 broadcasters originating from the Middle East. What we've been seeing lately on these different networks portrays a totally different image of Iraq compared to what has been reported in the US media. I'd like to share with you a few of the stories reported by Iraqi and regional networks:

Stories about poor health conditions, the spread of disease and poverty have been abundant. A recent story on Al Iraqiya TV portrayed Iraqis living off garbage in dumps.
The news report features two young Iraqi sisters rummaging through piles of garbage to find things to sell. With the little money they earn, they buy food and medicine to support their ailing father.

Another report focused on a new phenomenon happening at Iraqi hospitals where children are being abandoned by their parents due to hardship.

Both of these stories hardly represent the improvement in Iraqi lives we keep hearing about here in the US.

Then there were the two most disturbing stories: the first dealt with the effect of war on an Iraqi village. Due to the use of depleted uranium and other chemicals by US soldiers, many of their newborns are suffering from deformities. Al Alam television aired a report from the village of Jarf al-Milih, east of Basra, where several villagers complained of skin rashes, cancer and other diseases caused by containers left by American troops.

The other, one of the most chilling stories I've seen, was about Iraqi women recounting their rape by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib.

On New TV, a victim of rape becomes a suicide bomber after she was dumped on a freeway by her rapists. She decided to exact revenge from her rapists rather than become a victim of honor by her family.

Finally, the six-year anniversary was marked by a protest in Al Basra as reported by the Iranian network Al Alam. The protesters asked for the release of Iraqi prisoners held by the occupying forces. They carried signs condemning the occupation and requested the immediate withdrawal of British and U.S. forces from Iraq.

Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV.

Comments

[motown67]

11:03 AM on 03/28/2009

American news coverage of Iraq took a dramatic drop in 2007. At the beginning of that year it accounted for around 25% of all news stories and was in the top 5. When Congress stopped talking about withdrawal plans the war dropped down to around 4-5% of coverage by the end of the year. This despite the fact that there were heavy U.S. and Iraqi casualties throughout the year. By 2008 Iraq was down to an avg. of 2% of coverage and was rarely a top 5 news, sometimes not even making the two 10. In 2008 most major news outlets started pulling out their staffs and reporters as well. In 2009 you can expect even less coverage. For the three weeks of March 2009 for example, Iraq has not made the top 10 news stories at all. For more see: musingsoniraq.blogspot.com

[4MARLA]

11:22 AM on 03/27/2009

HAS ANYONE NOTICED THE TYPE OF PEOPLE ON C-SPAN LATELY??? I WONDER WHO IS IN CHARGE OF INVITATIONS???? I WATCH BBC WORLD NEWS AND MOSAIC IN ORDER TO LEARN ABOUT HOW MY TAX DOLLARS ARE BEING SPENT BY ISRAEL. WHAT HAS CHANGED WITH THE WASHINGTON POST???

[newsjunkie5]

01:16 PM on 03/27/2009

what do you mean when you say what has changed with the washington post?

last time i checked they are reporting the way they and all major us newspapers have always reported...if you can call it reporting!

[jad114]

10:43 AM on 03/27/2009

I think that it is premature to withdraw from Iraq especially since the security situation has been slipping. Just yesteday 26 people were killed in a market. I believe that sectarian violence will return as the US reduces its troops there.

[justice2008]

12:12 PM on 03/27/2009

This is the same argument the Bush Administartion has been making for years: if we leave sectarian violence would break, however, we cannot police Iraq forever!

[newsjunkie5]

01:18 PM on 03/27/2009

i agree with you 100%...as if sectarian violence could ever be as damaging as the us' occupation of it has been.

[motown67]

11:05 AM on 03/28/2009

The sectarian war phase is over. Opinion polls of Iraqis and the level of violence all show that they do not want to return to this period. The violence is concentrated in Baghdad because it is the seat of power, and then in Salahaddin, Ninewa, and Diyala because those have ethnic, sectarian faultlines the insurgents have been able to exploit. In southern Iraq by contrast there might be 1-2 attacks in the entire region in one month. The new conflict anyway is between Arabs and Kurds an that will probably stay political in the short term at least, rather than the Sunni-Shiite divide that was the cause of the fighting in 2006-2007. musingsoniraq.blogspot.com

[cohen238765]

09:24 PM on 03/26/2009

First, I'd like to say how much I appreciate your work with putting together the news show Mosaic. I have learned a lot by watching it. Second, I do have to agree, we did forget about Iraq and we do not seem to remember it until there is a major attack or explosion. There are more than 3 million Iraqi refugees waiting to go home, who is reponsible for them? We still have 140K of our troops there. When one of them gets killed or injured it's hardly reported in the media...just another number.

[newsjunkie5]

02:21 PM on 03/27/2009

it seems that iraqi deaths are always just a number...why is this?

why are iraqi lives somehow less important than american lives?

[leonardox1]

08:12 PM on 03/26/2009

Bush and Cheney et al should be brought into trial! Who caused all of this? Why are they getting off the hook?

[newsjunkie5]

02:21 PM on 03/27/2009

i don't know WHY they are...but they should be charged for the slew of war crimes they are both responsible for

[joz22]

08:07 PM on 03/26/2009

It is disturbing to know how many lives have been ruined because the War on Iraq. I believe that President Obama is trying his best to put an end to the suffering. He knows that we need to withdraw our troops but it has to be done safely. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse the clock.

[justice2008]

01:10 AM on 03/27/2009

We cannot reverse the clock; however, the faster we get out of Iraq the better. Also it is now the responsibility of the US to make sure that Iraqis do not suffer like what has been reported in these stories.

[newsjunkie5]

02:23 PM on 03/27/2009

EXACTLY

thanks to Mosaic for bringing to light these very human but tragic stories. we need to see this and change things sooner rather than later.

[newsjunkie5]

04:38 PM on 03/26/2009

Interesting article Mr. Dajani. Great job.

It's true - it seems we have forgotten about Iraq. Between Bush leaving office and Obama stepping in many of us have forgotten that our troops are still there and that not much has changed or improved for the Iraqis. Maybe many of us just assume the Iraqi "situation" will just disappear now that Obama is in charge.

So thank you again for brigning these stores to light and back to the forefront of our minds and awareness.