Monday, March 26, 2012

Unpublished letter to the editor

 
Newborn baby in Fallujah
Photo:  As of December 21, Alani, who has worked at the hospital since 1997, told Al Jazeera she had personally logged 677 cases of birth defects since October 2009. Just eight days later when Al Jazeera visited the city on December 29, that number had already risen to 699.  “There are not even medical terms to describe some of these conditions because we’ve never seen them until now,” she said. “So when I describe it all I can do is describe the physical defects, but I’m unable to provide a medical term.”


Here is the letter that they did not publish:

LETTER SENT TO ASHEVILLE CITIZEN TIMES

The Budget Control Act of 2011 will require about $100 billion be cut from the Pentagon budget.  Over the next ten years, this would amount to about a $1 trillion cut, bringing the Pentagon budget back down to 2007 levels.  I want to see this budget cut put into effect, and the Pentagon spending return to 2000 levels.   

We have spent over $1 trillion dollars on our wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan alone, and have nothing positive to show for it.  In Iraq, the country is destroyed.  Hundreds of thousands were killed, millions are refugees, and tens of millions have been severely damaged by our war of aggression against a country that never threatened us.

In Fallujah, one baby in four dies before they are a week old.  Two more of the four babies have obvious birth defects.  Cancer rates are soaring, and all of this started in 2005.  This is the result of the US military assault on that city.  I fail to see how that helped a single American in any way, shape, or form.  It has been devastating for the city of Fallujah. 

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