40,000 feared dead

[beyurslf]

<http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031227/D7VMO0180.html>


Overwhelmed rescue crews picked through entire city blocks of rubble in search for survivors and bodies a day after an earthquake ruined this southeast Iranian city. With the death toll in the thousands, Iran appealed for international help and promised to waive visas for foreign relief workers.

The scope of the tragedy was so vast that a reliable death toll was impossible to pin down so soon after the magnitude 6.5 quake hit Bam early Friday. The Interior Ministry's early estimate on Saturday was 20,000 dead, while two leading rescue officials said the toll could eventually double.

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I hope Bush will be willing to set aside our differences long enough to help out the tens of thousands who have lost loved ones.

[Bombtrack]

1. pretty sure the UN(which the US is a big part) will be heavily involved

I'm actually one of the few people here who think that Bush isn't evil, and like us hates to see death like this, even if he's accustomed to the greed/asshole/right wing christian ideology that he's grown up with.

I'm sure the US will do it's part, and it should. Iran definetly has the potential to be become somewhat democratic and constitutional within the next 2 decades, and pro-western, and this help should be a stepping stone in repaired relations, particularly with the growing number of Iranian moderates

[Don Claybrook]

2. Well, it sounds nice

Except that, in reality, the Bush Administration has set the cause of the moderates in Iran back by about 20 years. The day after the SOTU "axis of evil" speech, the moderates said 'screw it' and they were in the streets with everyone else chanting 'Death to America'. This administration's foreign policy idiocy nearly succeeded in erasing all of the gains the moderates had made there.

[Goldmund]

3. This rubs me the wrong way:

" Iran definetly has the potential to be become somewhat democratic and constitutional within the next 2 decades, and pro-western, and this help should be a stepping stone in repaired relations, particularly with the growing number of Iranian moderates."

I don't think that humanitarian help should have anything to do with democratic reforms or anything having remotely to do with politics. Even if Iran had no chance of ever becoming a democracy or a consititutional republic, even if there were no Iranian moderates, it is thousands of dead human beings and many thousands more in need of help. That should be the alpha and omega. Humanitarian help is given without regard for political, financial, or strategic return.

[kalian]

5. Very well posted

:toast:

[aquart]

4. I'm not disputing the estimates but I need some help.

The pictures I saw were all of one-story buildings. ONE-STORY.

How did so many die in buildings so easily evacuated? What am I not understanding?

[kalian]

6. The quake hit a large region....

you can't base the numbers by pictures IMHO.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[nostamj]

8. timing...

(AP) The quake struck at 5:28 a.m., while many were asleep.

there was no chance to evacuate. these very old, mud & brick buildings simply collapsed on them