Mother Jones Magazine has put together a pretty incredible study,the “Iraq Effect,” led by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, research fellows at the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. My one gripe is that there is very little detail on women, but that’s always my gripe (and afterall, the male condition is the human condition). The full study is in the March/April magazine. Here are some quick highlights:
- War has increased terrorism seven fold worldwide.
- In 2006, 30% of Iraqi children went to school. Before the war, attendance was nearly 100%.
- The president of the Iraqi National Council of Women does not go out without bodyguards. “I started with 6, then I increased to 12, and then to 20 and then 30.”
- One of the 66 women in the Iraqi Parliament told the UK Observer, “This is the worst time ever in Iraqi women’s lives. In the name of religion and sectarian conflict they are being kidnapped and killed and raped.”
-The war costs American taxpayers $1.9 billion a week, or $275 million a day. If the U.S. had not invaded, militarily containing Saddam through 2015 would have cost an estimated $23 million a day.
-41 cents of every dollar of American reconstruction money is spent on the Iraqi military or police. 3 cents goes to “democracy building.”
2 Comments
February 28, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Read that study! The detail
“41 cents of every dollar of American reconstruction money is spent on the Iraqi military or police. 3 cents goes to “democracy building.” is more than shocking!!!
February 28, 2007 at 7:27 pm
[...] MilbyDaniel: Iraq 101. MilbyDaniel pulls out some eye-opening facts from Mother Jones’ study, The Iraq Effect, which examines changes in Iraq and in the world since the invasion. Among the observations: since the start of the so-called War on Terror, the incidence of global “terrorism” has increased sevenfold. (”Terrorism” has to go in quotes since the label is applied so subjectively; you know, one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter and all.) [...]