The Iraqi government is hoping to introduce legislation allowing doctors and medical specialists to carry weapons. It is hoped the move will offer protection against the violence with which they are often confronted.
Doctors in Iraq can be the target of rebels and kidnappers hoping to make money through ransom demands. Another problem is that, especially in southern Iraq, tribal tradition dictates that doctors pay compensation if a patient in their care dies.
The risks run by doctors in Iraq have led many of them to leave the country over recent years. Their training enables them to earn a living relatively easily elsewhere.
The Iraqi government hopes doctors will be more inclined to return home if they know they can carry guns. The draft legislation still has to be approved by Iraq's parliament.
photo: Flickr / kasi metcalfe
Flickr / kasi metcalfe
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David and Hiram, you are both right in your way. What I suggest is that every citizen should be perfectly trained in self defence. However, I still cannot agree to what Iraqi government suggests, arming doctors to kill the criminals, that's the duty of the police and state. If we allow such things, there will be anarchy as everybody goes around shooting anybody, for real or fake reasons. What is then a government for? Hiram, providing arms freely also means putting the society at risk. You remember the school/college shootings in US and Europe. Why is Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq in turmoil? Because everybody has a weapon, and most of them are six foot under in a wooden box! What happened in Mumbai was terrible and our forces had a tough time killing the terrorists, wonder what a civilian would have done with a pistol! There again our govt was at fault, not securing the land and sea borders, against a known enemy, and still the borders are open..Now citizens can't go around flashing klashnikovs in schools, hospitals, offices, hotels and markets..The thing is that govts all over the world have failed in their duty to protect their citizens, that's why such criminals and jihadis are having their say. We are sitting ducks, as you say...
I honestly do not know of many doctore who can kill, even in their own self-defence, and can save lives at the same time. This is why so many doctores have emmigrated from Iraq. Hiram, allow me to ask an academic question of you refagarding the Mumbai terror attacks. If the victims were armed with comparatively slower firing pistols than the machine guns the terrorists were using with a firing rate of hundreds of rounds a minute, how much of a significant difference would it have made on the survival rate of the victims? On the surface the Mumbai tragedy is an open "apples and oranges" comparision to what a doctor in Iraq would anticipate encountering in the worst circumstances. It takes more than a six-shooter to win a gun fight that can be over before it even begins. The doctors who have left Iraq know the situation is beyond any sane approach and have responded by leaving.
"I honestly do not know of many doctore who can kill, even in their own self-defence, and can save lives at the same time. This is why so many doctores have emmigrated from Iraq."........David Berridge, even medical doctors will shoot back when their lives are on the line. Medical doctors are humans and a vast majority of humans, including doctors, will fight back with anything to stay a live and that includes a "six-shooter." As to Mumbi, those murdered people were attacked by terrorists who knew the advantages ahead of time. They, the terrorists, knew their victims couldn't shoot back at them; therefore, they were not in harms way and were at a "turkey shoot." Also, a person with an automatic weapon, especially in a state where guns are not permitted, has an advantage; but, in a society where guns are permitted, the aggressor knows he has the chance of being killed after the initial shock has taken place. { You mentioned Doc Holliday. I, too, have read the history of Holliday and he, too, was also put into a situation where an aggressor try to kill him with a gun. Holliday, being an expert at the use of knives, used his expertise to kill an aggressor who tried killing him with a gun. The aggressor by going for his gun, thought he had an advantage over Holliday but lost his life because Holliday was ready and prepared to use his knife. Now, Holliday's knife was like the "six-shooter" against the automatic weapon. The six-shooter lost out to the lessor knife because of the person behind it. The shooter thought he had the advantage over Holliday but he didn't know Holliday was not only an expert with guns but also with knives. The moral of the story my friend is: " Just because a person has an automatic weapon doesn't mean a person with a "six-shooter" can't defend himself with a revolver with six shots in it." { A medical doctor being attacked by terrorists in Iraq is no different than those innocent citizens in Mumbi being attacked by terrorists. The attack in Mumbi killed more people because those people couldn't shoot back at the terrorists. { I would rather go down fighting, than go down like sheep at the slaughter house. In Israel, citizens carry guns! Why? Because they know the consquences for not doing so. Medical doctors in Iraq know the consquences for not being able to carry guns. Those are the doctors who I would want.
The only doctor I can recall ever willing to go this route was Doc Halliday when he teamed up with the Earp brothers. The rest is history!! Jasmin's observations are correct, but even deeper is the ned for Iraqi culture and society to change at it's essence to end such conditions.
'Jasmin's observations are correct, but even deeper is the ned for Iraqi culture and society to change at it's essence to end such conditions.'.........David Berridge, your statement is like telling the leopard to change it's spots. If the world could change it's "essence" the prisons would be closed, people would pay their taxes, Wilders would buy himself a prayer rug, and the Europeans would have elected Blair as their first president. Are you British? Sounds like something a Brit would say.
Wow! How intelligent! Instead of providing security to doctors, or better still-improving law and order in Iraq, the government is providing weapons to doctors, to settle scores with criminals. Just imagine a doctor shooting around instead of treating patients...Will arms training be a part of medical curriculum?
"Wow! How intelligent!".........When a medical doctor is saving someone's life, why shouldn't he/she be allowed to carry and use a gun to save his or someone elses life? Had those people, the ones who were slaughter in Mumbi, been allowed to carry guns for protection, those terrorists wouldn't have murdered so many. Everyone has a right to defend their lives from those who don't care about guns laws and murder freely. If the government can't give me a personal, body guard to protect me from being murdered, then I have a right to protect myself by carrying a gun. { What good is a doctor if he is murdered. No government has a right to take a person's means to protect himself and then not protect him. I would rather stand in front of a jury and tell them why I defended my life than be six foot under in a wooden box.