Even the title is a piece of propaganda, readers, as if Iraqis weren't free to farm under Saddam.
I'm tired of the lies and bullshit. Every frikkin' day!
"Now farming freely, Iraqis fear drought; Fields, pastures become dustbowls" by Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times | July 6, 2008
HAWIJA, Iraq - After struggling through five years of war, Iraq is facing an acute drought that has slashed agricultural production and threatens to destroy livestock. In the worst-hit northern provinces, areas that were covered with golden wheat fields and verdant pastures have become dust bowls.
Irrigation canals crisscross Hawija, but the water level is controlled by the Dukan Dam in the semiautonomous ethnic Kurdish region to the north.
Many of the mostly Sunni Arab farmers in Hawija were convinced that the Kurdish regional authority in Irbil was holding back water deliberately until US officers brought them photographs showing the dam's reserves had dropped by 10 billion gallons.
US officials say it is a problem of conflicting priorities. The Kurdish region uses the dam to generate electricity, so it stores water in the spring, when it is most needed by farmers, to build reserves for the hot summer, when demand for power peaks.
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