Peoples Geography — Reclaiming space

Welcome to Iraqi society, the cradle of civilisation, 6 years after the second brutal invasion that followed a genocidal sanctions regime: Dahr Jamail reports of child trafficking and dozens of cases of US soldiers stealing from reconstruction funds. That’s on top of failing infrastructure and unimaginable daily violence, and much else besides. An horrific but important read where Jamail’s justified anger is palpable as he concludes, “Everything becomes twisted, grotesque and inhuman amidst the bilateral psychosis that is war and occupation. This is how West Point graduates loot funds meant for providing aid to Iraqis. This is how your tax dollars are paying the men who are killing US soldiers in Iraq. This is how nothing touched by the vile, immoral, US occupation of Iraq is left unscathed.” Excerpted, read in full here.

[...] What continues to be missed is the deep suffering within the country that is cutting through the Iraqi people like a vicious incurable cancer, which is how most Iraqis continue to perceive the occupation.

Nowadays, at least 150 Iraqi children per year are being sold into child trafficking rings, a growing crisis that is gripping Iraq. Iraqi children are being abducted by the scores on an annual basis, and are being sold both internally and abroad. Some of the bartered youngsters become sex abuse victims.

On April 6, The Guardian reported, “Criminal gangs are profiting from the cheap cost of buying infants and the bureaucratic muddle that makes it relatively easy to move them overseas. Accurate figures are difficult to obtain because there is no centralized counting procedure, but aid agencies and police say they believe numbers have increased by a third since 2005 to at least 150 children a year.” Read the rest of this entry »