At a hotel in Baghdad, his hosts almost had him walk over the face of former President George Bush in a mosaic on the floor. Photographers were ready to snap a picture. But beyond these political games, he found genuine suffering as he toured schools and hospitals, health clinics, and water treatment plants. He found rampant disease, including ailments like cholera that have disappeared elsewhere. He came across many children with leukemia and other forms of cancer.
Infant mortality is perhaps the highest in the world.
For those who reach adulthood, there are few jobs. Unemployment exceeds 50-percent. The middle class has been wiped out with an average wage between three and five dollars a month. Some countries, including France, China, and Russia, are heeding that plea and asking to relax the sanctions. I think that this situation in Iraq poses a serious moral dilemma for the world.