The State of Things: Talking Points from CPT Iraq
December 14, 2004

Trauma to Soldiers Underreported
The Pentagon deliberately downplays the trauma that the Iraq war causes to soldiers and their families.  Although, in late November 2004, the U.S. military's Stars and Stripes newspaper reported that nearly 21,000 U.S. soldiers had been treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, the Pentagon's official count listed only 9,300 U.S. troops wounded in action.  This number is nearly 11,500 less than the Stars and Stripes report, because the Pentagon only lists combat-related injuries.  In November the Department of Defense sent CBS News a statement reading: "More than 15,000 troops with so-called 'non-battle' injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq."

More than 1,200 soldiers have died, and more than 5,000 of the wounded have been too badly injured to return to duty.  According to a study conducted last year by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, 16 percent of Marines and 17 percent of Army soldiers showed symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq.  Those figures are probably deceptively low, due to the shame connected with reporting a psychological illness.  Other returning soldiers experience increased rates of high-risk behavior, marital discord, and suicide attempts - all needing attention from a veterans' healthcare system that has received no new funding since the Iraq war began.

U.S. Tactics Foster Resistance
Many of the U.S. military actions (such as house raids, bombardment, and mass detentions) that are designed to quell the insurgency and increase security actually backfire, fueling the resistance and compromising long-term security.  Both of the attacks on Fallujah (April 2004 and November 2004) have resulted in high civilian casualties and destruction of personal property, increasing residents' anger and losing "hearts and
 minds."

Throughout Iraq, soldiers routinely carry out house raids designed to capture insurgents and weapons caches.  However, because they often carry out raids based on nothing more than an anonymous tip, they often raid the wrong house.  Whether or not the homeowner is innocent or guilty, the very process of a house raid invariably terrifies and sometimes injures or kills the women and children of the family.

CPT has taken countless testimonies of Iraqi civilians who have been wrongfully raided, detained, or injured, or who have had their property confiscated by U.S. soldiers.  The process for restitution is lengthy, confusing, and ineffective.  The procedure for visiting or even getting information about a detained relative is similarly confusing or impossible for many Iraqis.  And the well-documented torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere is just one of the many injustices inherent in the detention system.  Detainees have no access to lawyers, can be held indefinitely without trial, and often live in substandard conditions.  CPT has listened to many families of detainees, and has heard some express intentions to join the resistance out of sheer desperation.  Thus, the military's heavy-handed tactics, designed to quell the resistance, actually feed the fire and increase the danger to their own soldiers and to every citizen of Iraq.

Infrastructure problems continue
The Representative of the Vatican says that hospitals sometimes lack simple supplies like gauze and bandages, but they are operating better than before the war.  The resistance is destroying oil pipelines and electrical grid - the Oil Ministry has lost over $7 billion to sabotage and the Ministry of Electricity has spent over $2 billion to secure the grid.  Acute child malnutrition has doubled since the US invasion (Washington Post).  Of the $18.4 billion allocated by Congress for reconstruction, the US has spent $1.7 billion.     Sixty percent of rural Iraqis have access to only contaminated water.  National electricity is down 25% and down 66% in Baghdad compared to pre-war days.

Shortages of gasoline, propane, and electricity are rampant While the decade long embargo has technically ended, trade with other nations is not strong. Many factors contribute to this but the lack of security on the roads, at the airports and at the seaports are major contributors.  A marginally functional energy infrastructure has been further weakened by sabotage of various insurgent elements.

Drivers wait in gas lines for 48 hours.  Electricity in parts of Baghdad comes from the grid only two to four hours per day.  Tanks of cooking gas cost 40 times what they did before the U.S. invasion.

Crime and security are increasing problems for the society
Unemployment is 30% or higher in the country and over 60% in Baghdad itself. Other than jobs for security guards there are no major employment opportunities.  Many children have to work to help support their families and do not attend school.  A Gallop Poll reports that only 33% of Iraqis feel better off than before the war, 94% say that Baghdad is more dangerous than pre-war, and 80% want the US to leave after the election.  U. S. military statistics say that the number of insurgents has increased from 5000 to 20,000 (a British general says they number 40 to 50,000).  The Iraq Police have only 25%, 31%, and 41% of vehicles, body armor, and weapons, respectively, that the US says they need.  The social fabric is very tattered in the country and it is this unraveling of that fabric that is a major factor in creating the current crime wave.

Troops bring fighting to civilian areas
 Many major cities in Iraq have nearly daily fighting - Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Baquba, and Mosul.  U.S. troops, the prime targets of the Iraqi resistance, still maintain a major presence in cities and other civilian areas.  As a result, the streets become battlegrounds, and Iraqi civilians are caught in the middle of armed actors.

Contracting outside Iraq robs Iraqis of employment

Many Iraqi professionals, especially engineers, are unemployed and are losing their skills as outside workers perform this work, at much higher rates that would be given to an Iraqi worker.  Salaries for Halliburton and KBR employees in Iraq are very high because of the security dangers.

Underemployment among professionals is causing a "brain drain" for the country as those who can get professional employment outside the country often leave.

Detainee issues continue
In the past month, the detainee population has nearly doubled, according to media reports, because of the assault on Fallujah.  In addition, the house raids and security sweeps in the "death triangle" south of Baghdad continued in early December.

Some situations have improved for detainees.  Families have better access to information of the detainees on web-based sites.  Visits are allowed every two weeks instead of every five months.  There are more frequent reviews of prisoner status.  We celebrate these changes, but are concerned about continued injustices.

The talking points of the detainee campaign can be found here.  Please examine these as you study responses to these issues.


Christian community is under threat
In September 2004, the Christian Science Monitor quoted a prominent Iraqi Christian as saying, "We are treated like we are part of the American presence here."  Christians and Muslims have historically gotten along very well in an Iraq that only decades ago had one of the highest educated populations in the Middle East.  However, wars and sanctions have fostered ignorance and fundamentalism, and now an extremist minority in Islam links all Christians to the West, and view them as collaborators with the U.S. invasion.

The U.S. use of violence increases the likelihood of attacks on Iraqi Christians.  During the Fallujah bombing, some extremists threatened to bomb a church every time the U.S. bombed a mosque.  Increasingly, Christians are leaving.  Since the U.S. invasion, about 5 percent of a 900,000-strong Christian community has left.  Although they are only 2-3% of the population, their loss will be a severe blow, as they make up about 20% of Iraq's doctors, 25% of Iraq's engineers, and 40% of all Iraqis with advanced degrees.

Human rights abuses in Fallujah
Reports coming from the conflict indicate a severe disregard for human rights by U.S. troops against armed actors and civilians.

Journalists have been kept from entering Fallujah to report on the severity of the situation there.

Reported difficulties in the election process
A dozen major parties are urging a delay in the January 30 election.  Even the interim government has mentioned an election process that would be spread out.  Many Sunni parties are threatening a boycott of the election. One sixth of the voter registration sites are closed because of the violence.  There are pressures from all directions on the Iraq electoral commission.  Candidates and voting sites are likely to be targeted by bombs and attacks. The US has trained just over one half of the Iraqi security forces needed for the election.     However, Iraqis CPT has spoken with are hopeful this is the start of a genuinely autonomous Iraqi government. Shi'a Grand Ayatollah Sistani is urging the election to proceed on schedule and all people to vote.

"Unbiased" reporting of events is rare
The U.S. and the Interim Iraqi government have banned Al Jazeera, a well-respected Arabic language media.  Reporters and emergency workers could not gain entry to Fallujah to report on the impact of the assault.  Even embedded reporters are reporting war crimes.  Note the embedded Knight Ridder report, "Dead-Check in Fallujah," by Evan Wright, Village Voice, November 24-30, 2004.

Communication barriers exist between Iraqi citizens and U.S. officials All U.S. government officers and personnel live behind the concrete barricades of the Green Zone.  They are almost totally cut off from the city and the people.  Iraqis have very limited opportunity to interact with most U.S. personnel.  The only U.S. citizens most Iraqis see are the U.S. military who either keep totally segregated from the citizens of Iraq or interact with them only in the form of military actions.

Exceptions to this reality would be those Iraqis employed by the U.S. and the times when U.S. soldiers play with children on the streets.