Baby Bloom

There is a place that has been ruled by real, live Nazis on and off since 1941, Nazis who seized total power in 1968 and maintained it by means of terror, murder, divide-and-conquer tactics, and pandering to the basest jihadist sentiments until 2003. The Nazi regime was overthrown in 2003, and danger springs from insurgencies led by the remaining Nazis, Al Qaeda, and the Iranian-supplied Sadr Brigades, especially in Baghdad where the insurgency focuses its efforts in order to manipulate the world press.

No matter how much the Nazi-Baathist brigands and imported terrorists frighten the cowardly world press, they have not cowed the native Iraqis. In Iraq, yes even in Baghdad, things have changed and the future is pregnant with hope.

The choice of "pregnant" was made with purpose aforethought.

These days Iraqis want to bring more children into the world. Not only did Iraqis plant a seed of democracy earlier this year, husbands and wives also got busy and planted seeds at home. The dangers they face do not stop them from making babies, but instead prove to be an incentive to make more ... in case some should be lost.

Despite the obstacles, the birthrate in Iraq actually has increased since the U.S.-led invasion 43 months ago, according to the country's Health Ministry. The rate of births in the country has jumped from 29 births per 1,000 people in 2003 to 37 per 1,000 last year, according to government figures.

How does this compare to the neighbors? And what about other factors such as the death rate and the effects of migration? According to the CIA World Factbook Iraq has the highest net population growth rate in the neighborhood.

Country	Birth Rate /1000	Death Rate /1000	Migration Rate /1000	Net Growth Rate /1000
Iran	17	5.55	-.48	22.07
Iraq	37	5.37	0	42.37
Kuwait	21.94	2.41	15.66	40.01
Saudi Arabia	29.34	2.58	-4.94	26.98
Syria	27.76	4.81	0	32.57
Turkey	16.62	5.97	0	22.59

As demonstrated in the table, Iraq's overall population growth rate of 4.237% is higher than any of its neighbors. Even Kuwait, experiencing a huge wave of immigrants, cannot beat it.

Question for readers. Is Iraq going in the right direction? Do you have all the information you need to decide?



Bonus Info
Among other interesting factoids, the poor security situation in Baghdad coupled with the high birth rate has lead to an increase in scheduled Caesarian Sections, at least at some hospitals.

"Patients cannot always see their doctor or reach a health facility when they need to because of poor security," said Simone Kurchin, 38, an obstetrician at the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena Hospital, a private facility in south Baghdad. "This is always a problem now."

According to the hospital's records, Caesarean births have more than doubled since 2003, from 1,107 to 2,447 last year, when they outnumbered natural births.

H/T: Winds of Change, the Iraq Report