In Iraq today, if militias, terrorists or government forces don't kill you, the weather just might.
As Alsumaria's video report (click here) makes clear, the rain is falling.,
Press TV (via Al Bawaba) reports 60 are dead due to this week's flash floods and "The Iraqi Health Ministry said on Friday that most of the victims died due to electrocution caused by flood-related incidents." AFP adds, "The country's decrepit drainage system is unable to handle heavy
rainfall, and parts of Baghdad too have suffered prolonged flooding."
The deaths were often preventable.
Had the government done its job and rebuilt the public infrastructure, the death toll would have been lower.
The flash floods fall under a natural event (or "act of God") but the natural event does not offer cover for the deaths.
This week, the Iraqi government was yet again trumpeting the arrival and/or impending arrival of weapons and war planes.
It's always purchased plenty of weapons -- under Nouri al-Maliki prior to Haider al-Abadi -- it's just failed to protect the citizens.
Unlike the Members of Parliament, the average Iraqi does not have a security team to provide protection.
Instead, they're left to count on the government that supposedly represents them to . . . represent them.
But instead the money officials haven't stolen have gone to buy this weapon and that.
None of which prevent suicide bombers or, for that matter, electrocution during flash floods.
Isabel Coles (Reuters) reports, "A cholera outbreak
in Iraq has spread to neighboring Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain, and risks
turning into a region-wide epidemic as millions of pilgrims prepare to
visit the country, UNICEF's Iraq director said."
xx
