U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ IS STRANGLING FARMERS

It was once known as the "Fertile Crescent." A section of Diyala Province, Iraq known for its rich harvest of crops, but then the United States invaded Iraq and now the Iraqi farmers are having to sell their farms or break them up into smaller farms because disease is everywhere and the farmers can no longer make a living farming.

You don't read stories like this in the mainstream press in the United States because the mainstream press in the United States is in bed with the Bush administration.

Write or talk about anything that is not positive about Iraq and the you are immediately called a traitor or labeled unpatriotic.

The truth of the matter is the Bush administration has destroyed Iraq.

This story by Dahr Jamail and Ahmed Ali is just another indication of the damage the Bush administration and the United States has done by invading and occupying Iraq.

Commentary by Bill Corcoran, editor of CORKSPHERE, the blog that dares to tell the truth about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41414

*BAQUBA, Feb 29 (IPS) - New plant diseases, attacks by occupation forces and escalating fuel prices are strangling farmers in Diyala province.Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, farmers in Baquba, the capital city of Diyala province 40 km northeast of Baghdad, struggled with plant diseases they believed were caused by bombs dropped during the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 1991.

Trees were infested with white fruit fly, aphids and plant louse, and there was a shortage of water for irrigation. The directorate-general of agriculture used helicopters to spread insecticide. After the invasion, the situation has worsened. Helicopter spraying seems unthinkable. "With helicopters large distances can be sprayed in one stroke," Aboud Ibrahim, a 55-year-old local farmer told IPS. "In the case of white fruit fly, when a farmer sprays the insecticide, the disease can move back to his farm again from the neighbouring farm within six hours. This is why simultaneous treatment of all farms is so efficient."

Helicopters now mean something else. "Helicopters and fighters of the coalition forces attack farmers who work at night on their farms," said a local farmer who did not want to be named. "Due to the water quotas, farmers are forced to water their farms even at night. Some farmers have been shot in firing by coalition forces. Farmers would rather neglect their farms than risk death."

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