It's all about sanitation.

Thousands of civilians may die from bombs and
bullets, but millions will be affected by dirty water.
After the first Gulf War, outbreaks of cholera and
malaria killed untold thousands of Iraquis. Millions
of people became ill. This is Iraq's absolute destiny.

Does food play a role in life expectancy? Of course
it does, but food's role may be better measured
as a factor of rates of disease and health.

Many people in the meat and dairy industry delight
in illustrating the fact that people living in
developed industrialized countries live longer than
people living in not-so developed Third-World nations.

People eating milk and dairy products in America
and Denmark live longer than people who eat no
dairy products in Afghanistan, but the cause of death
in resource-challenged cultures has nothing to do with
diet. It's about disease. People eating a plant-based
diet do not die of the same diseases that plague so-called
developed nations. Heart disease and cancer are 21st
century diseases. Americans take between 10 and 20
years to die, while developing disabling diseases which
turn their bodies old from the inside out. People
eating a plant-based diet live lives without x-ray
machines, for osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease
are virtually unknown.

People in industrialized nations have developed resources
which include electricity and refrigerators. We take for
granted routine gifts such as clean water, and the means
to transport our own body wastes from toilet-containing
rooms within our homes. Our body wastes are transported
through pipes, deep underground, under homes, under
streets, to waste disposal facilities.

Iraqis will not be as lucky. As their infrastructure
collapses, their rates of disease and death will soar.
We will feed them, of course. We shall give them the
genetically engineered grains that other nations refuse
to purchase. We will feed them the surplus powder from
cows who produced unwanted milk as a result of genetically
engineered growth hormones. They will then fill their streams
and reservoirs with body wastes that will pollute their
own waters. I cannot be that cynical to imagine that our
Washington planners knew this would occur as phase two of
shock and awe, but each time I look at the back of an
American one dollar bill, I wonder as to the true meaning
of those words below the all-seeing eye above the pyramid,
"Novo Ordo Seclorum." Is this an example of the New World
Order?

The life expectancy for a male living in Okinawa is 86 years.
People living in Okinawa eat an average of seven portions
per day of fruit and vegetables, seven portions per day
of grains, and two portions per day of soy. They eat no milk
or dairy products. Once or twice each week they eat fish.
The life expectancy for an American male is ten years
less, at 76 years. Okinawans stay active until death, while
Americans become overweight, diseased couch potatoes.

The life expectancy for an Iraqi male is 66 years. The life
expectancy for a man living in Kenya is just 56 years, while
a male in Afghanistan is expected to live a mere 46 years.

Waste treatment. Clean water. That's the key, and that
will be the true tragedy of Iraq's near future. Filth
carries lethal disease. Humanitarian aid will feed and
clothe the people. There is not enough time, or clean water,
or understanding, to deter the horror story that is about
to be written in the desert.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com