U.S. occupation of Iraq leaves country a total disaster!
BAGHDAD, Iraq - August 22, 2010 - Iraq has between 25% - 50% unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What havoc the United States has wrought in Iraq.
UN-HABITAT, an agency of the United Nations, recently published a 218-page report entitled State of the World’s Cities, 2010-2011. The report is full of statistics on the status of cities around the world and their demographics. It defines slum dwellers as those living in urban centers without one of the following: durable structures to protect them from climate, sufficient living area, sufficient access to water, access to sanitation facilities, and freedom from eviction.
Almost intentionally hidden in these statistics is one shocking fact about urban Iraqi populations. For the past few decades, prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20%. Today, that number has risen to 53%; 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers. In the past decade, most countries have made progress toward reducing slum dwellers. But Iraq has gone rapidly and dangerously in the opposite direction.
According to the U.S. Census of 2000, 80% of the 285 million people living in the United States are urban dwellers. Those living in slums are well below 5%. If we translate the Iraqi statistic into the U.S. context, 121 million people in the United States would be living in slums.