BAGHDAD — Seventy percent of Iraq’s doctors are reported to have fled the war-torn country in the face of death threats and kidnappings. Those who remain live in fear, often in conditions close to house arrest. “I was threatened I would be killed because I was working for the Iraqi government at the Medical City,”
Still Homeless in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — “We only want a normal life,” says Um Qasim, sitting in a bombed out building in Baghdad. She and others around have been saying that for years. Um Qasim lives with 13 family members in a brick shanty on the edge of a former military intelligence building in the Mansoor district of Baghdad.
Boys With Toys
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” -John F. Kennedy It is not the threat of violence that weighs on the people of Iraq. It is the omnipresent occurrence of violence that has resulted in the desperate nation wide chant, “We are tired. All we want is
Dahr on SiriusXM, Reporting from Iraq
Dahr corresponds by phone from Baghdad, explaining the current state of affairs in Iraq, and what has changed since over the years, with satellite radio talk show host Pete Dominick. Download MP3
Full Circle
Among things that have not changed in Iraq is one that I hope never changes. After a four-year-long absence, each of my meetings here with former friends and fresh acquaintances seems to suggest that adversity has taken its toll on everything except Iraqi hospitality and Iraqi generosity. I am awestruck to find the warmth of
No Unemployment Among Iraqi Gravediggers
BAGHDAD — Amidst the soaring unemployment in Iraq, the gravediggers have been busy. So busy that officials have no record of the number of graves dug; of the real death toll, that is. “I’ve been working here four years,” a gravedigger who gave his name as Ali told IPS at the largest cemetery in Baghdad,
Iraq Elections Could Be a Telling Signpost
BAGHDAD — After strong polling for the provincial elections Saturday, Iraqis are looking out for new signposts of political recovery from the U.S.-led invasion and occupation. Polling picked up after a slow start Saturday in the 14 provinces of Iraq that are voting after the 2005 poll. The four provinces that did not vote are