CBC’s The Fifth Estate: The Lies That Led To War
A refreshingly honest and well-made 43 minute documentary from Canada’s CBC, notwithstanding the implicit acceptance of other official lines. This Fifth Estate installment looks at the lies that led to the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, and the Bush administration/PNAC’s manoeuverings (H/T: Fanonite). CBC is Canada’s national public broadcaster.
Meanwhile, a timely remainder about the reality of the grim conditions in Iraq, compiled by Steve Lendman.
Iraq’s real ‘Surge’
(T)he so-called “surge” is a bust. All that’s “surging” is the number of:
- daily attacks played down in the major media;
- deaths that a Just Foreign Policy report calculates at over 1 million since March, 2003 based on updating an earlier Lancet study estimating 655,000 or more deaths through July, 2006;
- uncontrollable violence throughout the country;
- refugees fleeing for safety; the International Rescue Committee and UNHCR estimate the number at around four million including the internally displaced with a further 40,000 Iraqis fleeing their homes each month; and
- a near-total breakdown of essential services like electricity, drinking water, sanitation, medical care, education, security and even food compounded by mass unemployment and extreme poverty; the result is a crisis level humanitarian disaster of epic proportions that continues to worsen.
A July 30, 2007 Oxfam International and NCCI network of aid organizations report had grim findings. It estimates:
- eight million Iraqis need emergency aid – one-third of the population;
- four million can’t buy enough to eat;
- 70% of Iraqis have no adequate water supply;
- 80% lack adequate sanitation;
- 28% of children are malnourished;
- the rate of underweight baby births has tripled;
- 92% of Iraqi children suffer learning problems due to fear; and
- there’s been a mass exodus of around 80% of doctors, nurses, teaching staff at schools and hospitals and other vitally needed professionals.
Thank you Ann. Only watched the first few minutes of the documentary before I got a case of Deja vu all over again. Credibility-R-Us!
It’s a sad state of affairs that these morons have gotten absolutely everything wrong at every step of the way and still people believe them. Maybe up really is down. Unbelievable.