Doctors Flee Bush’s Iraq Democracy

Try to imagine this.

You are a highly trained medical doctor, having worked for many years in what was once the best center for medical services in the Middle East. You were not fond of Saddam Hussein but you kept your mouth shut, were not hassled, and were able to provide proper medical care to your patients.

Then everything changes. In 2003 the American President ordered the “shock and awe” bombing of Baghdad and the invasion of Iraq. The capital and all of Iraq quickly comes under coalition force, mostly American, control. Saddam is out of power and soon will be out of luck.

Conditions quickly deteriorate at your hospital. There is not enough electricity, not enough medicine, too many militia groups, too many bomb victims, and too many killings inside the hospital facilities. Even one deliberate killing in a medical facility would be too many but there are more, many more than one.

You risk your life traveling to work each day. Your life is in constant danger as you carry out your daily tasks amid horrific conditions. You then risk your life again as you return to your fortress home. Under such circumstances what would you do?

While the above account is fictitious, it is an accurate account of the turmoil that many doctors and medical personnel experience in Iraq. Many have recently left Iraq for Jordan, where they tell how drastically medical services in Iraq have deteriorated since the occupation.

How could conditions have deteriorated so badly under American occupation? How is that a nation known for its generosity in providing assistance in humanitarian situations around the world can not manage to even supply adequate medical supplies, equipment, and security to hospitals in the capital city of the country that it occupies?

How can a stable nation be created when much needed professional people have to run for their lives, leaving the county they love to become refugees? What hope is there for a democracy when the best, brightest, most educated, and most needed citizens have to flee their country for fear that they and their families will be murdered?

George W. Bush and his coalition partners get a “F” in their planning for Iraq after the invasion and fall of Saddam. Their dream of a stable democratic government in Iraq leading to a democratic transition across the Middle East was perhaps noble but incredibly naive.

They destroyed Iraqi institutions and failed to think about how a nation could function without its civil servants in place. Bush and his “planners” disbanded the military and put over 400,000 angry armed men on the streets. If you want an insurgency that is a pretty certain way to get one.

They failed to provide security to Iraq as occupying forces. They have failed to provide basic services taken for granted in any civilized nation. They have failed at the humanitarian level, at the decency level, at the moral level.

Will a surge in American troop levels rectify the security challenge? Let’s hope so. But one shouldn’t count on it. The challenge as to how to rebuild Iraq will be with the world community for many years to come.

By not understanding the dynamics within Iraq and the Middle East Bush has let the fierce genie of Sunni, Shia, religious conflict out of the Saddam sectarian containment bottle. He has also turned the battleground of Iraq into a live hands on recruitment magnet and training ground for Al Qaeda terrorists.

And Bush and his coauthors of mass destruction are not men enough to admit the truth. It will be a daunting task to once again make the Baghdad hospitals safe for qualified doctors and their patients.

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