IRAQ: Nature Adds to Occupation Blows

According to McCain, things are going well in Iraq - but he obviously hasn't talked to the people of Iraq, and probably could care less what they are facing . . . just a traveler


Farmers in Iraq have been hit by just about every crisis possible. First the security disaster dried up supplies and markets, then lack of electricity cut irrigation, and now comes a drying up of water resources.

Nothing now seems more difficult in Iraq than the business of farming.

Many farmers say that they fear that the northern Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq is facing a dry 2008. The mountains there, besides the mountains of southwest Iran and southern Turkey, form a large source of water for Iraq.

The government is doing little to help people over this crisis. Hundreds of thousands of acres are now desolate, and thousands of people jobless.

Most villagers work in farming, and now that farming no more sustains people as it did, life there is badly hit. Agriculture in this area kept Iraq supplied, and also produced enough for exports. But now farmers sometimes have a hard time feeding themselves.

Iraq has started to import vegetables for the first time in its modern history despite a rich agricultural heritage that reaches back 6,000 years.

Aside from the direct consequences of a failed military occupation, such as lack of security, fuel and electricity, U.S. occupation authorities have installed a neo-liberal free market system that has pushed Iraqi farmers out of competition as foreign goods flood the markets. That in turn is hitting the local economy and increasing unemployment.

Source: IPS Migration

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42378