Mission Accomplished: Iraq War’s Environmental Ravages, Drought, Starvation
War causes more environmental destruction than any one thing. It’s not a story you hear about much in the corporate media because drought is not as visual as bombs exploding and guns firing and, like torture and child prostitution, it’s one of those dirty secrets that take the glamor out of beating your enemy into oblivion. But what’s happening in Iraq now is not only a more serious crisis but the logical and eventual result of wars with no long-term strategies: not just both Bushes’ but Saddam Hussein’s conflicts with Iran, and his own people over several decades.
Fortunately, war-ravaged Afghanistan has determined that their post-war economic and environmental future (if there is one) rests on one major crop: heroin. Nice to see them standing on their own again. We can only hope that Iraq follows their Afghan brethren and produces an obviously marketable commodity- other than oil- that is in also in high demand among more affluent, western societies and will similarly bolster their economy.
Now that’s nation building!