Kuwait Diary

Kuwait Diary -- April 26th, 2003

April 26th. 2003
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The Ugly Human

Why? Why do people loot in the chaos of war? Though the ages, people have looted and killed in the mayhem that follows the outbreak of war. This war has been no different. Why would people have gone to hospitals and stolen equipment? Why on earth would they have stolen incubators? What earthly use would they have had for them? Iraqis are blaming their own countrymen for this looting, stealing and mayhem and hiding their heads in shame. Then came the news (BBC, CNN)that a Fox News reporter, an American, had been caught stealing artwork, priceless paintings and gold plated automatic weapons. He was apprehended in the United States. You would probably agree that these items were not simply war souvenirs that can be ignored. I am no psychologist, but what dark animal instincts and uncivilized behavior are these that are so violently unleashed by war?

Consequences of war.

This week I was stunned by the images of patients from hospitals of Baghdad. There is no oxygen and equipment to support the doctors straining to save dying children. Nurses cannot come to work because transportation is unavailable. The doctors were seen to be sleeping on the hospital premises because, if they left, they would not be able to return. Most of the children under treatment are expected to die.

After 3 weeks, some parts of Baghdad have gotten back electricity, but there is still a scarcity of clean water. One Baghdad resident pointed out that since the jails were 'liberated' all the criminal inmates are now at large. There is no rule of law. Criminals at large and millions of lethal weapons in civilian hands, is without a doubt, a deadly combination. We should not be surprised if there are frequent bank robberies, fire-fights and insurgency.

War-ravaged Nasiriya is caught in a deadly cycle: with no electricity to pump water, locals are breaking into the underground pipes, allowing raw sewage to seep into the system. The danger of a cholera outbreak is a real one. Eight-month-old Ali Hussein is too young to know anything about the war, but he is feeling the effects now, in his stomach. For the past week, Ali has suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, leaving him badly dehydrated. Now doctors have prescribed him a simple antibiotic and his mother, Zahra, hopes he will soon be on the mend. For Ali has been diagnosed with gastroenteritis, cases of which have risen sharply in Nasiriya in recent days.

Since the third day of the war, the city's electricity supply has been out of action. Without power there is nothing to pump the water. And without running water, the locals are turning to untreated supplies, which they can't afford to boil because of the soaring price of fuel. The electricity shutdown has also brought the sewage pumps to a halt, so that much of this city of half a million people is sitting on a bed of stale human waste. In places it has started to seep up to ground level. Outside the clinic where Ali had been taken for treatment, the sewage has settled into a pool which runs the length of the dusty street before spreading out over a traffic junction. With temperatures rising as summer approaches, Nasiriya could find a cholera epidemic on its hands, says one highly experienced aid worker. Clean water, or the lack of it, is more of a problem than anything else in Nasiriya. There is no shortage of food. The central distribution system set up under the Oil for Food program ensured everyone here had enough rations to last them through to August. In some medical practices, 80% of patients seen are suffering from some sort of water infection. Dr Abdul Al-Shadood says his Al-Meelad clinic is seeing an average of 22 gastroenteritis cases a day, compared to one or two before the war.

"If this is not diagnosed and treated quickly in children, they will die," says the doctor. That has already started to happen. The doctor refers severe cases to the city's children's hospital, itself working at only half capacity after a stray missile attack, and says the illness has claimed young lives.

War brings out the worst of human nature, destroys the human spirit and will to survive. This war has been no different. Rumsfeld might be gloating in the safety of the Pentagon, but as the days roll by, the US is not being looked upon as liberators any more. Even in casual talk the word ‘invader’ is being very frequently used. Iraqis acknowledge that the US would be required, in the short run, to restore civic amenities, destroyed by war, but they hope that they go away soon. Given the possibilities of an Iran-like theocratic society being formed by Shiiya muslims who are in the majority in Iraq and getting organized pretty fast, the prospect of the US going away quickly, seems to be a bit remote.