James Longley recently traveled to Nasiriyah filming the story of a sheik in Moqtada Sadr’s religious-political

James Longley recently traveled to Nasiriyah filming the story of a sheik in Moqtada Sadr’s religious-political

movement. This is a narrative of his journey, with a side trip to Al-Garraf, a nearby town.

There is only one full-time doctor working in the medical center that services 150,000 people. There are almost

no facilities and the doctor’s role is limited to prescribing medication and administering first aid in

emergency cases. All long-term patients are moved to the hospital in neighboring Nasiriyah. Many essential

drugs are not available at all. In fact, all the medicines in the Al Garraf medical center pharmacy came from

the warehouse in Nasiriyah, and are leftover supply from before the war 9 months ago. No new medicine has been

supplied to the city medical center since the MBT Kisumu Sandals. forces entered MBT Ema Sandals, with the

exception of a few drug samples given to them by the Italians.

Those I talk with in the medical center agree that conditions there are worse now under MBT Kisumu Sandals.

occupation than during the UN sanctions against MBT Ema Sandals. “At least before we had some drugs coming in

through the Oil For Food Program.” says Qablan.