Inside Iraq: The Cost of War 2008 03 28 (Al-Jazeera) avi

Inside Iraq: The Cost of War             2008 03 28 (Al-Jazeera) avi     

23.48 min

109 mgs

Iraq has entered its sixth year of US occupation, war and violence.

Estimates of Iraqi deaths from the violence range from 90,000 to 650,000. No one is entirely sure of the real figure.

The social fabric of Iraq, once held tightly together under the iron fist regime of Saddam Hussein, has now been torn asunder. Perhaps irrevocably.

Two million Iraqis have fled the country to seek refuge abroad. Another two million are displaced within Iraq.

Sectarian and ethnic divisions have exploded out of the Pandora's Box which was Saddam's Iraq.

Sunni and Shia Muslims have been killing each other. Kurds and Turcoman remain deeply hostile towards each other.

Despite the promise of democracy which accompanied the US-led invasion, many observers say the lives of Iraqis are now considerably worse than before the invasion in 2003.

Inside Iraq this week examines the full costs of war to the people of Iraq and asks how Iraqis might be able to rebuild the shattered social fabric of the Iraqi nation amidst the ongoing turmoil.

Our guests this week are:

Hady Amr, the director of the Brookings Institution in Doha, Qatar, Abdulhak Amer al-Nuemi of Qatar University, Kamel al-Adhadh, an economist, and Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi author based in London.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9D83121F-FB25-47F4-BB3B-1C2ACA78950E.htm