Iraq is a Middle Eastern country located in the Arabian Peninsula, with a population of around 39 million people. The main ethnic group is Arab, making up around 75% of the population. Other ethnic groups include Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians. The majority of Iraqis are Muslim, with other religions such as Christianity, Yazidism and Mandaeism making up much of the remaining population. Additionally, there is also a small Jewish minority living in Iraq as well. The literacy rate in Iraq is close to 88%, and the average life expectancy is 71 years. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Iraq in 2009.
Social conditions
Iraq is a male-dominated country, where women’s rights and freedom of movement are severely limited. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of IRQ and acronym for Iraq. Men and women have the same right to education and work, but only a few percent of women work outside the home.
Despite high war costs, the medical device was greatly expanded during the 1980s. More than 30 new hospitals were built during the same period, but they were largely devoted to war medical care. The goal of public health care was to provide free healthcare to all citizens. However, before the 1990 Kuwait War, it only covered the needs of the cities. In rural areas, infant mortality remained high, mainly due to inadequate drinking water supply, malnutrition and unsatisfactory waste management. These problems were exacerbated during the Kuwait War, when massive bombings on Iraq’s infrastructure destroyed, among other things. many wastewater treatment plants and power plants. After the defeat, a civil war followed, which further worsened the situation.
The social insurance system provides employees in trade and industry with disability and retirement pensions, as well as compensation for illness, work injury and the death of relatives. For public employees, there is a special pension system.
Prior to the Kuwait War, Iraq had a labor shortage and a large number of guest workers. Although many of these left the country after the war, the lower economic activity, partly caused by international boycotts, has led to extensive unemployment. Large parts of the population lived on the famine border in the mid-1990s because of the economic sanctions. Basic foods are rationed at a very low level. Check to see Iraq population.
By mid-April, most war actions had ceased. In many cases, the continued resistance stems from foreign volunteers from other Arab countries who had traveled to Iraq to assist in the fight against the invasion forces. The United States had completed its occupation in less than a month. This had strengthened the militant right within the US government and was the reason why the US now began to threaten Syria and Iran with possible war if they did not “cooperate” with the occupying forces in Iraq. The Bush administration had already declared in 2002 that the overthrow of the regime in Baghdad was merely a first step in the “refurnishing” of the entire Middle East.
The war cost an unknown number of civilian lives – over 10,000 – and 5-10 times more wounded. During the invasion, the United States was guilty of violating the Geneva Conventions:
- partly by its use of cluster bombs which are prohibited;
- partly using napalm that was banned in 1980;
- partly by declaring that prisoners of war would be perceived as “non-combatants” and would therefore not be treated as prisoners of war, as otherwise provided by the 3rd Geneva Convention;
- partly by its failure to protect the civilian population during the acts of war;
- by not interfering with the extensive looting (which the United States apparently had initiated);
- and finally, by not securing the re-establishment of the water and electricity supply to the civilian population.
The Geneva Convention has a duty to occupy the human population to secure human conditions. The US has been criticized by Red Cross for these violations of the Convention. Another ½ years after the occupation, the water and electricity supply is not fully restored. This is because a significant part of the Iraqi infrastructure is built by European companies, or with parts of Europe, and following the massive European opposition to the US war, the occupying power did not want to involve European companies or buy spare parts from them. Therefore, instead of minor repairs, the United States has embarked on a comprehensive infrastructure replacement – with the Iraqi civilian population as victims.
The lie of weapons of mass destruction
The US alleged reason for the war was Iraq’s alleged possession of ” weapons of mass destruction “. During the war, however, Iraq did not use such weapons, and despite Secretary of State Colin Powell’s claims in the United Nations Security Council in January that the United States knew exactly where they were, the United States failed to produce evidence of their existence. They give many observers reason to believe that Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” were merely the pretext of the United States to start the war. In the summer of 2003, the US claim that Iraq was trying to procure uranium for nuclear weapons was taken apart. The government knew this already in 2002, but did not stop it from repeating the allegations as late as February 2003. The allegation was based on forged documents,
The lies about weapons of mass destruction have led to an increasingly critical debate in the United States and criticism of the government. In Britain in the late summer, the so-called Hutton hearing was conducted, which examined the circumstances of the weapons expert David Kelly’s death. He was Britain’s foremost expert in biological weapons, was an adviser to the Department of Defense and had interviewed the BBC that the British government had deliberately exaggerated the allegations of weapons of mass destruction. The revelations led to an internal revolt in the Labor Party because Blair’s government had led both the party and the public to the light. In Denmark, the opposition tried several times during the summer to set up a commission of inquiry into the background of the decision on Danish war participation in March. But this was voiced by the VKO government, despite the fact that that the government had in March led the Parliament behind the light. Violation of the Ministerial Accountability Act is illegal, but has so far been sanctioned by the government’s majority.
After the United States failed to find “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, similar accusations were instead directed at neighboring Syria and Iran.