[Marxism] Times lies about source of Iraqi healthcare problems

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

In a front page story Memorial Day the Times spills a lot of ink about 
kidnappers and angry patients' relatives attacking or threatening doctors. 
Buried in the story is this beaut:
"In the early years of Saddam Hussein, the health care system in Iraq was a 
showcase, with most Iraqis receiving excellent, inexpensive care. Iraqi doctors 
often studied in England, and Iraq's medical schools, based at hospitals, had 
high standards. But Mr. Hussein let the economic penalties of the 1990's bite 
deeply into medical care and used the damage to the increasingly worn system to 
try to persuade the world to ease economic pressure on Iraq."
That's their take on the genocidal US sanctions' impact on healthcare.
That's followed by another little gem:
"The more prosaic problems are no less serious. The decade of deficits under 
the economic embargo left equipment in poor shape. The state no longer picks up 
the tab for medicine. And Iraqis in several clinics visited this month 
complained of not having access to basic heart and diabetes medications."

And why does the state no longer pay for medicine? Could it be the 
privatization of as much of the economy as Paul Bremer could get his slimy 
little hands on? A little hard to blame this one on Rummy's ex-favorite 
dictator Saddam Hussein.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/international/middleeast/30doctor.html?pagewanted=print




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