Post War Iraq Conditions

Post-War Conditions in Iraq
Roger G. Schoen
PSYCH 620
March 2 2015
Jennifer Friedrich
Post-War Conditions in Iraq
“I think we ought to bring some of the Iraqis (Republican Guard) here and let them take a good look” General Norman Schwarzkopf
On August 2 1990 Saddam Hussein and his forces invaded Kuwait and by August 7th the 24th Infantry Division (ID) which I was a part of, had orders to deploy to Saudi Araba for a build up to war, Desert Shield -Desert Storm. On 24 February 1990 the ground forces broke through around 1800 hours (6pm). 24th ID mission was to move through the western desert and come above the Republican Guard and stop them from retreating to safety. The Republican Guard was Saddam’s elite forces to protect his regime. By the 28th of February the conflict was over and Iraq’s forces were in shambles and walking home. President Bush stopped the conflict because he did not want to unstable the area.
On March 20 2003 we again invaded Iraq; however the purpose this time was to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. The 89th Military Police Brigade, 720th Military Police Battalion, 401st Military Police Company, which I again was part of, had orders to deploy with 4th Infantry Division. The Battalions mission was to more through Iraq to Tikrit, 200 kilometers north from Baghdad, (Saddam’s birth place and home town), and set up operation. Our primary mission was to teach Iraqis police tactics so that they could serve and protect their communities.
There is a humanitarian crisis in Iraq from the war. The Bush, Blair administration has been criticized for failure in planning post-combat operations. Millions of Iraqis are in a state of a disastrous situation. With the doctors leaving Iraq, key services are desperately short on staff. Mothers are appealing to the international community to recover the bodies of the streets so that their children will be spared the horror.
The Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq has estimated that there are over 4.5 million children that are homeless and parentless with 500,000 living on the street with no type of care. There are more than 4.7 refugees of Iraq. Two million fled Iraq while 2.7 are internally displaced. All kind of people have been targeted from teachers to policeman with 331 teachers and over 2000 doctors murdered and 250 Iraqis kidnapped sine the 2003 invasion. Entire neighborhoods in Baghdad were ethnical cleansed by Shia and Sunni militias and sectarians, violence broke out in almost every city in Iraq that was mixed population. Both the Kurds in the north and the Sunni Arabs pushed out each other from cities.
Iraq is a country in crisis that has an internal conflict that has escalated since early 2014, that has created a protection issue of millions; over 20,000 civilian have been killed or injured. Civilians have all been targeted because of their religious or cultural background. Women have been singled out with thousands being raped, sold and abused. With over 800,000 Iraqis displaced and without proper housing that has to be fixed prior to winter.
Ethnocentrism refers to a tendency to use your own culture as a baseline to judge or understand other cultures. In Iraq there is three major cultures: Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish, with two major religious beliefs Muslin and Christian. The issues that may arise while in Iraq are customs, language and beliefs. The muslin culture has had some type of violence for centuries. The belief that power is though violence, every culture wants to be the one in control. I have after two tours in Iraq find it hard to trust or believe whether it’s right or not.
Prior to our planning for the humanitarian project in Iraq there are three topics that I want to understand better. We are going to review health issues, rebuilding Iraq and water safety. The people in Iraq will have health issues due to the decades of wars. As usually the women and children are at risk of having health issues because of the breakdown of law and order, hundreds of doctors have left the country for safety. With the war related illnesses and non-fatal injuries among the Iraqi civilians had not been determined. The health facilities are in dire need of generators, drugs, laboratories, and personal to serve their community. Most health workers were displaced or fled Iraq. “A study of 1243 doctors who were based at 12 hospitals located in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Erbil were displaced by 22% in Baghdad and 6% in Iraq” (Levy, B. S. & Sidel, V. W. 2013). Due to the infrastructure being damage there were many injuries to the civilian as electric shock, unintentional explosions and gunshot wounds. There is an increase of diseases, malnutrition, and cancer is on the rise due to the lack of services and safe food and water. Prior to the Gulf War health services were equal to other middle class countries. Around 7% of Iraq’s hospitals were damaged and 12% more had issues with the loss of essential equipment by looting, all caused be the last war. The health system was disrupted in storing and distributing necessary vaccines for thousands of children. “In the first 4-5 years after the war, an estimated 2.2 million refugees fled the country. An estimated 2.7 million people were internally displaced, many of whom faced greater health risk, because of problems such as inadequate shelter, and a lack of security, than the refugees who left Iraq.” (Levy, B. S. & Sidel, V. W. 2013)
The post war recovery, reconstruction has been on the minds of many different governments, organizations, and has become an area of study in universities. Reconstruction is going to involve both the communities and military operation. Unfortunately pre-war planning on post-war Iraq, however it does not consider the humanitarian issues during and after the war. Pre-war reconstruction is not new, however throughout “history pre-war reconstruction looks at imperial ambitions, with expeditionary enterprises being justified in terms of reclaiming lost territory in the name of a sovereign nation, state, or race.” (Mac Ginty, Roger 2003) The coalition spent significant amount of funds, energy and planning for a post-war Iraq, with the USA in the lead played a role for a contingence plan for post-Saddam Iraq. The US government was already doing post war reconstruction involving the Whitehouse, core government agencies, departments and the military. The Coalition’s military operations started in early 2003. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) based in Tikrit, Iraq amounted up to the temporary government. “The Kurdish North and the four southern provinces were at least initially quiet and, at least, seemed fertile ground on which the Coalition might show early progress.” (Synnott, Hilary. 2005) The office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, (ORHA) was the first attempt at creating a civilian government. The main role of the ORHA was to manage the refugees and provide basis support, however they had to deal with Iraq’s demanding solutions to an enormous issues.
“Water is essential in providing nutrients, but contaminated water contributes to poor health. Water quality and the availability can change in unstructured situations such as wars. (Levy, B. S. & Sidel, V. W. 2013) To develop a practical strategy to address poor water quality resulting from intermitting wars in Iraq. The prevalence of disease was high in improvised, malnourish Iraq exposed to contaminated water sources. In developing a strategy to improve water quality, which encompasses remineralized water from desalination plants, health care reform, monitoring and evaluation systems, and educational public health interventions.” (Zolnikov, T.R. 2013)
The questions we must ask ourselves is 1) How can we provide stable humanitarian services, both medical, and socially, 2) How can we make a stable civilian government for the people of Iraq, by all the people in Iraq, 3) How can we produce clean, safe water for consumption, and 4) how can we afford the drastic issues in Iraq.
In conclusion the biggest challenges in the future will be what civilian authorities will be able to accomplish abroad. The Iraq war caused a huge amount of morbidity and mortality among non-combatants and military personal and families. “The health consequences of a specific war are likely to be much more extensive than envisioned before the war. Government and military leaders should resort to war, with clear cut goals, as a last resort. The only way to prevent any death of civilians or military personal is to prevent wars at all cost. Had all these issues that cause the war had been solved and all the health consequences described, this could have been prevented.

Reference
Alistar, Mack (2004) Humanitarian Crises of the Iraq War
Hansen, C. (2008) Humanitarian Action in Iraq; Putting the Pieces Together
UNCS, Government (2014) Iraq, A country in Crises Peer-Reviews
Parish, Colin (2003) Health in post-war Iraq Devastated for Decades
Levy, B.S. & Sidel, V.W. (2013) Adverse health consequences of the War Iraq
Mac Ginty, Roger (2003) The Pre-war Reconstruction of Post-war Iraq
Mines, K.W. (2006) Losing Iraq, Inside the postwar Reconstruction Fiasco
Synnott, Hilary (2005) State-Building in Southern Iraq
Zolnikov, T.R. (2013) The Maladies of Water and War