Tents and marquees trade booms under hammer of U.S. military occupation

 

By Kadhem al-Miqdadi

 

Azzaman, May 16, 2005

 

It seems tents and marquees trade in our land has peaked with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis currently living in tent cities due to the ongoing U.S. military operations.

 

First we heard about sprawling tent camps erected to house the fleeing refugees from Falluja, a city with nearly 300,000 inhabitants which the U.S. military had to destroy ostensibly to pacify.

 

Then came reports of tent cities rising in the outskirts of the oil-rich center of Kirkuk and Khaniqeen.

 

And now we hear of yet another tent city for the fleeing inhabitants of the border town of Qaim which for the past week was scene of ferocious fighting.

 

Our Red Crescent and the international Red Cross have mobilized their forces in the country. Their main task is to pitch tents in the desert to house families uprooted as a result of fighting.

 

As they hand out their tens and sacks of flour, they invite international media to cover their humanitarian gestures.

 

But the media are barred from covering bombardment and shelling by U.S. tanks, warplanes and helicopter gun ships.

 

We still lack any pictures of the destruction that took place in Qaim.

 

But we are certain of one thing: U.S. military operations, despite the use of massive fire power and bombs weighing more than 500 kilograms, have failed to defeat the insurgents.

 

Two years ago the White House thought it had emerged victorious in its bid to dislodge former leader Saddam Hussein and its chief, George W. Bush, went on television declaring “mission accomplished.”

 

We wonder whether U.S. leaders and military commanders give a damn to the consequences of sending their gigantic military force into action.

 

If they have no idea, they should visit Falluja which their forces have turned into a “homeless town.”

 

Not all tent cities are a result of the U.S. invasion of our land.

 

Some of them are the making of the former dictatorial regime which was as barbaric in quelling the towns and forces opposing it.

 

Iraqi refugees who have opted to return from Iran have pitched a run-down tent city in Khaniqeen close to the Iranian border.

 

Some 1,700 families languish in this tent camp where children, women and the elderly scramble for food and water.

 

The presence of so many tent cities comes amid a latest government study issued recently on the situation in the country.

 

The study says 50% of Iraqis are unemployed, more than 80% have no access to stable power supply and child mortality and malnourishment are higher than the pre-invasion period when the country was under sweeping U.N. trade sanctions.

 

And still our occupiers and their government would like us to talk about “the new Iraq” and want us to be “optimistic” about the future.