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The Socialist and Marxist Lecture Series presented independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who gave a lecture entitled “Update on Iraq: Future Plans for the Middle East” last Thursday afternoon.
Jamail’s visit was sponsored by the Schonberger Memorial Lecture Fund and the Distinguished Lecture Series Cultural Affairs Fund. Jamail gave another lecture in the evening titled “The Ground Truth Today in Iraq: Report From an Independent Journalist.”
Jamail has covered the war in Iraq since it began, and spent a total of eight months reporting from Baghdad over nearly two years. He has been published in various news sources and regularly updates his own Web site at www.dahrjamailiraq.com. The move to report the war independently hinged mostly on the “level of disinformation going on” in the American media, according to Jamail.
Jamail covered two topic areas during his speeches. The first was the current situation in Iraq, both for civilians and military personnel; the second, what the future looks like in Iraq in terms of military construction and occupation. Jamail made a blunt comment about what the conflict in Iraq means here at home by saying “I feel this country is in a crisis.” This tone resonated through much of the speech.
One of the most contested points about the conflict in Iraq is the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the invasion began in March of 2003.
The number used by government officials is determined by deaths that are reported in the Iraqi media. The stipulation to this is that the death has to be cited in three news sources, and those sources need to be published in English. According to Jamail, this eliminates most Arab sources, which are the most informed about local events. That number is currently around 30,000.
In a study conducted by Columbia University and published in “The Lancet,” a leading medical journal in the United Kingdom, the number of Iraqi civilian casualties was estimated at 98,000.
Jamail also touched upon military surveys that show military morale is extremely low, that the soldiers are simply going through the motions and believe the war is a lost cause. A military survey taken in 2004 showed 56% of soldiers had “low” or “very low” morale.
As far as the plans the United States has for Iraq, Jamail made the observation that although the government claims it has intentions to leave the country in the future, there are immense construction projects taking place all over the country.
He posed the rhetorical question of why the military would be embarking on these multi-million dollar projects if they had plans to hand complete control back to the citizens of Iraq. The most lavish example of these construction projects is the U.S. Embassyconstructed inside the green zone. Jamail juxtaposed this elaborate $500 million complex, which houses a swimming pool, a school and a first-rate theatre, with the environment in which Iraqi civilians have to live every day. “The longer the occupation continues, the worse it gets,” said Jamail.
Civilians in Baghdad get an average of two hours of electricity per day, women and children rarely leave their homes due to the high levels of violence and threat of kidnaping, and propane needed to boil bacteria-laden water is sparse and expensive. Jamail summed up the lecture by asking a common question he believes is becoming all too apparent: “At the end of the day, what is this doing to our security?”
Bangor Daily News