Irak 3

Voordat we de berichtgeving over de Irakese verkiezingen van de half ingevoerde Nederlandse pers over ons heen krijgen, is het altijd goed eerst nog even de buitenlandse media te raadplegen die in tegenstelling tot de Nederlandse pers permanent een eigen correspondent in oorlogsgebied hebben. 'The Independent newspaper of London has published a series of statistics to mark what has happened in the 1,000 days since then:
· Zero weapons of mass destruction have been found.
· At least 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died so far though some studies put the toll over 100,000.
· 66 journalists have been killed.
· 183,000 British and American troops remain in Iraq.
· Over 2,300 U.S. and coalition troops have been killed.
· At least 16,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in action.
· $200 billion has already been spent by the U.S. And news reports today indicate the total cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars could top half a trillion dollars.
· Between 60% and 80% of Iraqis still strongly oppose the presence of U.S. troops in their country.
· 67% of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation.
· There are currently an average of 90 attacks staged each day by the Iraqi resistance.
· 8% of Iraq’s children are suffering acute malnutrition.' Democracy Now interviewde Robert Fisk over Irak: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/14/154243 En de Asia Times heeft een achtergrond artikel met citaten als deze: 'The favorite Anglo-American election candidate supposedly capable of pulling it all off is once again Allawi - a truculent secular Shi'ite who was once a Ba'athist (he has kept the good connections) before he became anti-Saddam and a US intelligence asset. The White House may forget it, but Iraqis don't; Allawi gave the go-ahead for the American leveling of Fallujah and the American bombing of holy Najaf in 2004. A few days ago he was bombarded with shoes and chased away from the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. British Prime Minister Tony Blair supports him and considers him "the best hope" for Iraq. Pentagon analysts agree, as one of them told The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh that "he would allow us to keep Special Forces operations inside Iraq ... mission accomplished. A coup for Bush."'
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GL15Ak03.html