Iraq: five years on
Photo from Channel 4’s Dispatches
It is five years on from the invasion of Iraq. Last Saturday (15th March) there was a large march in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition to demand the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Similar demonstrations were organised in many cities around the world. Whatever you think about the Iraq war, there is no doubt that the health care situation in Iraq is dire as we discussed in a previous blog entry.
To mark the five year aniversary of the invasion, we have an interview with Dr Salam Ismael, the founder of the non-governmental organisation, Doctors for Iraq. He was a trainee orthopaedic surgeon in 2003 when the war started but quickly had to change to relief work. He established Doctors for Iraq in response to the chaos of the invasion and started off with 12 doctors. There are now over 250. Since coming to the UK, Salam has toured many cities and given talks in numerous universities. Students got involved in a campaign to collect old medical books that would be sent to medical students in Iraq. So far they have collected 8000 books and 100 CDs. If you would like to get involved in this campaign or want to find out more about the work of Doctors for Iraq, please email me at student@lancet.com
I also want to draw your attention to the UK’s Channel 4 news which has organised a week of programmes and which you can watch online, including the doctor’s diagnosis with Dr Haidar Ali, a neurologist at the central Baghdad Medical City hospital. He has seen many of his colleagues targeted and killed. The online collection also features indepth analysis and personal stories. Rhona : student@lancet.com
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