By: reens

reens — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 13:14:37 +0000

Talk about joining all the threads of the tapestry… documentaries last night on British TV gave a good start: one long news report about the breakdown of controls over prescribed medication means that anyone in baghdad can get serious prescription-only pills (valium, prozac and stronger) over the counter for relatively little money, no questions asked. Remember, this is only one small symptom of general disorganisation in Baghdad after its liberation — I’m not even talking about schools or consistent utilities or even general safety… So all the people living in daily fear and trauma are becoming addicted to anti-depressives or sedatives. There’s long waiting lists for proper medical consultation, on top of which the top doctors (and drugstore chemists) are leaving the country en masse. One said his best advice for traumatised Iraqis was to leave the country. Let’s not even talk about the mass of illegal drugs that are available…
The second doco was on the Hurricane that Shamed America (Channel 4), which calmly detailed the poor and inept FEMA response to Katrina. Disturbing was not only the inherent racism or fear that came out in particular parts of the relief effort (the neighboring county police blocking the bridge, worried bus drivers fearing mob rioting) but the hard-core DISinformation that surfaced in the media. Bewildered doctors heard news reports on the radio saying their hospital was being evacuated or robbed for drugs, whilst they were standing IN the hospitals where nothing of the kind was happening. This was on about day 4 or 5 after the storm. All those poor people without water or food or adequate sanitation were left for nearly a week to bake in the sun while bureaucrats like Brown were toeing officious lines of inaction. And he still has the nerve to blame it on others, the mayor of N.Orleans etc. Whilst the dept of Homeland Security were demanding press-friendly statistics on how many had been rescued, before they were even rescued, or the relevant orders has even been given. And no-bid reconstruction contracts were arranged.
Anyway, I’m rambling. But then the US Army finally decided it does do civilian bodycounts after all, even though their figures are wildly underestimated, and counted for less media time that that magic 2k number only mildly broadcast in the media.
Iraq is at the point of implosion and the Hawks are looking to Syria and Iran to provide the nation with the next national distraction.
Patterns of bad planning, hubris, spin-disinformation, anyone?
reens (dublin)

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By: reens