Iraqis mourn occupation scars
Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:19PM

Four-year-old Yousif Hamed (L) and his sister, Inas, both of whom suffer from birth defects, at their home in Fallujah (file photo)
Iraqi civilians and politicians mourn the unpleasant reminders of the US-led occupation, as the last American combat troops are preparing to leave the country.


"Iraqis will never forget the painful memories of the US war crimes. The US violated the international law and occupied our country. Their presence has ripped us apart," Abdul Sattar al-Jamally, Iraqi parliamentarian of the al-Iraqiya Alliance, told Press TV's correspondent in the capital, Baghdad.

On Thursday, the last Iraq-based US combat brigade, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division quit the war-torn country in line with Washington's promise to enable a complete withdrawal by the end of next year. The withdrawal has left some 56,000 troopers stationed across Iraq, 6,000 of whom are to pull out by September 1.

The US started and led the Iraqi invasion in 2003 based on allegations that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Later findings, however, proved that the country was not in possession of WMD, and that the US officials who rallied support for the invasion knew about this.

Iraqi civilians, meanwhile, bore the brunt of the violence, seen as the militants' reaction to the long-drawn-out US presence, getting regularly caught in the crossfire between the militants and the troops.

"The only thing that comes to my mind when I think of the US occupation is a carnage, airstrike and random arrests," said one local male.

Leaving perennial damage on the populace were two American attacks on Fallujah in central Iraq in 2004.

According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the use of napalm, white phosphorus, and depleted uranium weapons is behind the rise in birth defects in Iraqi children.

The study found that a staggering 24 percent of all babies born in Fallujah were afflicted with deformities.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) estimates the number of Iraqi orphans to be around five million, 500,000 of whom are street children.

"The US does not care about Iraq. Now that they are leaving I hope that our politicians will grab this opportunity to build an all-inclusive government," said another civilian, referring to the country's continued failure to determine its next leadership.

Despite the American involvement having attracted notable stigma, analysts reject the notion that the military would desert Iraq in the foreseeable future.

Jeffery Steinberg, political analyst and critical contributor to news periodical Executive Intelligence Review, recently told Press TV, "Those 50,000 troops or some approximation of that are going to be there for a very long time. We have put a lot of money and are still continuing to pour money into building up a number of bases, at least one very large airbase, several bases in and around the immediate vicinity of Baghdad."

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139684.html