Texans for Peace Blog Iraq Trip 3 (and prior trip 2)

TODAY:

1. Over 1,000 US soldiers killed, and no end in sight. See http://www.texansforpeace.org/endthewar for daily updates and details of the war in Iraq.

2. It appears that almost everyone in D.C. (of both parties) don't understand what they have gotten into in Iraq, therefore will be unlikely to come up with viable solutions and only become more mired.

3. Alan Pogue is on his way back from Basra after getting Asraa and her father out to bring them to Houston for a prosthesis. He reports that the medical conditions in the South of Iraq have deteriorated even further:

"I spoke with an Iraqi doctor who told me the Iraqi Health Ministry put out a

directive that no doctor may give out exact numbers or statistics on health

conditions or war related deaths. So I can't use the name but it was said ( no

pronouns either) that there is a cholera epidemic in the south. There are over

21,000 families living in bombed out houses in the south alone. Drinking water

is still in short supply. Basic medicines are in short supply, such as

anticoagulants that would save women giving birth from hemorrhaging to death.

There are few fetal heart monitors, not enough blood warmers for transfusions,

ventilators for those in cardiac arrest or other conditions in which breathing

stops. There is supposed to be money for these things but it either is not

there , not being spent or being misspent, according to the doctor. Iraq has a

66 per thousand infant mortality rate. Many babies die in the first month after

birth."