Once a hospital where appendix removals dominated operating lists, these days surgeons at Al-Yarmouk hospital work round the clock to save the limbs and lives of bomb blast victims. Filming inside the hospital which is located in one of the most dangerous areas of Baghdad was extremely risky and many staff were afraid to show their faces on camera. Before the insurgency Al Yarmouk was a "normal, local hospital", now it's a "field hospital in a civil war," said the Iraqi doctor/documentary maker. He was given unprecedented access to film in the hospital. His identity cannot be disclosed - to do so would endanger his life. "I've worked as a doctor for five years, all through the invasion. It's never been so bad and it's getting worse every day. I don't know how much more of this I can take," said the doctor. This program looks at the sectarian strife tearing Iraq apart from the perspective of the United States, British and Australian forces. Baghdad Doctor, by contrast provides a gritty, enthralling take on the collapse of Iraqi civil society. Most of the hospital's patients are Shiite civilians injured by the bombs of "extreme Sunnis and Al Qaeda." Even so at Al Yarmouk hospital Shiite and Sunni muslims work side by side. Medical staff fear being targeted because they treat patients from all sects. Gunshots have been fired in the ER room and doctors have been kidnapped and killed.
The point was made that much of the reconstruction money for Hospital refurbishment as well as supplies was squandered. The Doctor who made the film also thought that the departure of the foreign troops now would lead to a catastrophe. The Government of Al Maliki came in for a heavy pasting of criticism. Everyone who appeared in the film - Sunni or Shia, Doctor or patient - were unanimous that they wanted a united Iraq without sectarian division. Everyone spoke of terrorists without any qualification - no-one referred to "insurgents" or "resistance" and nearly unanimously they termed the Terrorists as being the product of extremist leaders who have little mandate amongst the populace at large and that they were driven by Al Quaeda. There was none of the mealy mouthed apologists for the terrorists that is such a feature of Anti-War discourse.
These are people that deserve our support - and any way to make that as direct as possible should be sought out. The terrorists have to be defeated, and pressure put on the Maliki Government to be worthy of the people who elected them, just as the Coalition civil reconstruction effort has to improve - the military cannot do all the lifting. What we can do at this distance from Iraq is make sure that the many good men and women who are doing an incredibly difficult job in Iraq get the support they need to do it - and be mindful that the Terrorists and extremists have strategy based upon their ability to influence the domestic politics of the coalition countries whilst at the same time presuading Iraqis that they are imminently going to be abandoned.
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