Chemical Warfare, Anfal, & The Halabja Region
Experts think that Saddam Hussein’s 281 chemical attacks and experiments on the Kurds of northern Iraq contribute to the high rate of life-threatening heart disease among children in the region today. Saddam’s numerous crimes against humanity are well-documented, and though his legacy as an evil dictator will never be disputed, it’s easy to forget just how long it truly takes to rebuild a country that has lived under oppression for so long.
Saddam’s torture chambers have all been emptied, but the suffering carries on in the millions of displaced Iraqis living in refugee camps; in their children who suffer from malnutrition; in the lingering effects of his chemical cocktail experiments; and in the lives of widows rearing dying children alone.
U.N. Sanctions
Others cite U.N. sanctions and the massive spike in infant and child mortality throughout the mid-nineties for many of the problems among children and youth in Iraq today. Widespread corruption and the deliberate withholding of essential human services led to rampant malnutrition and disease in Iraq on a scale so vast that it led to the resignations of the U.N. Coordinator for Iraq and other U.N. leaders. The sanctions were widely criticized by U.S. and world policy-makers for never really “harming Saddam”.
Malnutrition & Intra-family Marriage
Thousands of children suffer the effects of heart diseases that begin while the child is still in utero (a.k.a., congenital heart disease). In a country like Iraq, these are some of the hardest diseases to understand because the contributing factors are not always identifiable or understood until it is far too late. In rural areas malnutrition is cited as another contributing factor. Intra-family marriage - a practice common in tribal societies and reinforced by histories of ethnic cleansing - is still practiced by many today and probably also contributes to the prevalence of these diseases. Most of our kids suffer from holes in their hearts or a four-fold anomaly known as Tetralogy of Fallot.
Summary
The sad news: there is not one, easily identified cause for all that ails Iraq; even when it comes to pediatric heart disease.
The goods news lies in all we can do together! We can oppose future sanctions that harm the very people we want to protect. We can invest into regions like Halabja (cf. Buy Shoes. Save Lives.) and make reparations for damage done by Saddam and Western interests. And we can give life to children dying from ravaging heart disease.
Our legacy in Iraq is not written in stone but we can still write love on their hearts.
What Are We Going To Do About It?
All Iraqis need a passport and a visa in order to get outside the country for heart surgery. We can begin there…
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