"Children 'Starving' in New Iraq"-REALLY??

[Annie]

http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2005/03/amber-alert-another-missing-headline.html

Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Amber alert: Another Missing Headline

All units, all units: Countercolumn is issuing another Missing Headline Alert.

The headline, "Iraq Child Malnutrition Rates Cut by Two Thirds" has been abducted from the masthead of the British Broadcasting Service, and replaced with the misleading headline, "Children 'Starving' in New Iraq"

From today's BBC:

Increasing numbers of children in Iraq do not have enough food to eat and more than a quarter are chronically undernourished, a UN report says.
Malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led intervention - to nearly 8% by the end of last year, it says.


In addition to the headline, several important and relevant facts were also reported missing from the story.

Among them was the 2000 report of a congressional Democrat and head of the Congressional Hunger Center:



But Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, says Saddam Hussein's government must share the blame for not getting enough humanitarian aid to Iraqis suffering from malnutrition and disease.

Hall, who spent last week examining hospitals, schools, pharmacies and other facilities that serve Iraqi civilians, said he could verify reports estimating that more than 25 percent of Iraq's children are underweight and one-tenth are suffering from hunger and disease.


Second among the reported missing facts was a prewar United Nations report, cited by PeaceAction.org and countless other sites, which found that 25 percent of Iraqi children were malnourished during the final years of Saddam Hussein.

Investigators for Countercolumn have confirmed that the 8 percent malnutrition rate reported by the United Nations under the coalition government is less than one third of the 25 percent figure cited by UNICEF prior to the war, and taken as gospel by numerous progressive organizations calling for the lifting of the UN sanctions.

Investigators have ruled out charging BBC reporters and editors as well as United Nations diplomats with any crime, since anybody who's too stupid to figure out that today's 8 percent malnutrition rate is not double 25 percent malnutrition, as the BBC lede reports, cannot be held responsible for their actions as if they were, you know, sentient adults.

Splash, out,

Jason