Similarly it is American "liberation/occupation" that caused nearly 300,000 un-necessary death of children under 5 years of age.

Here’s an excerpt of that message:

"One of the biggest insults to human 'intelligence' is Bush's claim that '30,000 Iraqis, more or less,' as Bush put it, have been killed and thousands more wounded.

The UNICEF study have suggested that nearly 500,000 child under the age 5 have died from 9991-1996 from bad and deteriorating health, sanitary and food conditions due to the sanctions imposed on Iraq.

That is an average of 100,000 children under the age of 5 a year.

With worse conditions now than any time in the past, one could safely assume that at least 100,000, if not more, children under 5 are dying every year because of the 'liberation'

That alone would mean nearly 300,000 child in 3 years.

I know that will shock the conscience of Americans but these are facts that Mr. Bush doesn't want Americans to know."

I know that it is very hard to swallow such assertion in America.

Would America accept half of that - 150,000?

Would America accept a quarter of that - 75,000?

Even this figure is much much higher than the 30,000 "more or less" which Mr. Bush claimed at the press conference.

This paragraph in your article disturbed me.

"A Marine on the scene told our reporter that no civilians had been killed, but the injured girl's father disputes that. He told the Orlando Sentinel last year that the explosion killed two of his children and three others."

It is an example of how American military is trying hard to mislead the American public.

They fight their war on "terrorism" with 2000 pound bombs on houses frequented by "terrorist".

These very very "smart" bombs kills only "terrorists" and are trained not to kill civilians who happen to live in the house!

According to the American Marines, Alaa's two brothers, both children, were "terrorist" so are the other 3 children!

I may be dumb but not too dumb to accept that allegation. Someone is lying here. I bet my life it is not Alaa's father.

Americans could continue sleeping with a clear conscience, believing that their elected government could not kill innocent people like Alaa’s brothers.

Someday they have to wake up to reality but then it will be too late!

The US has a very well "lubricated" media covering Iraq. My neighbors and friends at CNN Baghdad showed me how bad news never gets covered. I challenge all the American media in Baghdad to publish pictures of destroyed buildings in Baghdad that still have not been "reconstructed" yet after nearly 3 years of "liberation".

I hope they have the courage of telling their readers that we the Iraqi engineers were able to reconstruct most of what was damaged in 1991 in less than one year.

Every time you watch CNN from Baghdad, look at the multi story building on the right side of the screen.

This building has a few broken windows, may be burnt from inside ... but structurally sound. I know that no work is being done to fix it yet. I do not believe that we need Halliburton or KBR to change the glass or fix the window frames or put a lick of paint.

Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar
Baghdad, Iraq
Currently living in Jordan
Member of the Brussells Tribunal Advisory Committee

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20769&s2=19