[He turns to an old man on a bed who is paralyzed and breathing through a tube in his throat.]

This is Hajul Alij, he is a religious man at the mosque. He's a good prayer, he believes in God and he was shot going out his mosque.

By whom? Does anyone know?

Dr Alaa Yusuf: No, he was just shot. He's been six months in our sporadic care unit. His problem is very easy. It's not a cut in the spinal cord, it's just immobilization of the bone during compression of the level of CG on the spinal cord. He survived this whole period and now he's suffering severe depression. One of the causes of the depression is he got help from a German group that said they'll take him and do the operation on their account. The problem is transportation. The problem is he cannot go to Jordan by ambulance because it's a spinal injury - movement. He must go by a helicopter or airplane. So how can they go to Germany if there's no transportation for him? So he will not benefit from what's offered to him.

Can the German doctors come to him?

Dr Alaa Yusuf: They can, but our theaters aren't equipped, are not qualified, for such an operation. It's easier to bring the patient than to bring in the whole team and bring the drugs.

Do charitable groups abroad send drugs and equipment?

Dr Alaa Yusuf: Yeah, but you see, it's samples. What you give, what anybody gives, it's samples. What UNICEF gives, it's samples. It's not the real need of the Iraqi medical community. It's a sales technique: "This is our company's product." The other day a group came in and they bring in multivitamins. Distributed on the same day. Tomorrow is going to happen. The day after tomorrow is going to happen. One day there was no oxygen present in our pediatric unit. Look at him. He's just a number, a statistic, in the United States. Look at your- self. You're going to go back to the United States and say, "Oh, poor Iraqi people" and then have a good life. I'm sorry if I'm quite blunt with you, but that's true. Maybe you're going to talk about it for one, two, three or four weeks. Maybe there'll be a campaign or two for easing suffering, but then you'll go back to your life. And we'll come back to our life. [He pulls the old man's tube so he can speak and translates for him.] "A man, when he cries, he cries for a cause. I don't cry for myself. I'm crying for my country, which has been destroyed, which has been lost. The people paying the most for this are people being killed. "The United Nations, united on us, wants to kill every Arabic person. Just like in Vietnam. We are a very highly qualified and historical country. We learned the people, history and education. They destroyed our country with their airplanes and guns. We are not ignorant people. We knew, and we know. The Sunni one who's killing the Shia one is the same that are killing the other side." What he means is that they want to create a civil war between the Sunni and the Shia. This is why he was shot. He's a Sunni religious man, so who shot him? Oh, it's the Shia they say. Nobody in this room believes that a Shia would shoot a Sunni, and that a Sunni would shoot a Shia. This man who's been shot, and they tried to leak the message to him that a Shia shot him, has said, "I don't believe you." We are not ignorant people, he's trying to say. We are highly intelligent, we'll not believe in any story. "We want the occupation to go out. We want our people to be united. I'm par- alyzed, but I have hope. Those fighting now are good people, who will help us in our crisis. We have been hurt by the ex-regime, but this regime is far worse." [He indicates the patient.] This one was arrested and abused by the ex-regime because he tore up pictures of the ex-president. He's getting better, thanks to God, not to us. We're able to do less than five percent of what American doctors can do to help their patients.

Dr. Alaa Yusuf: Our emergency units still lack essential equipment, but we have the ABC drugs - the fluids, antibiotics. But if we're talking about the emergency unit, there are special drugs for special cases, which we should be provided with. Still now we're waiting. Nothing came yet. Nothing.

We're trying to do the best in our jobs. We did our best. But you know we need support, very big support. Nothing has changed really. Maybe they've painted the walls, new furniture, but we're talking about critical equipment and new drugs. Now you're going to see our intensive care unit, then we're going to go to the pediatric unit and the pediatric ward. The doctors themselves are going to tell you what we see here, what we do.

ER chief: We do not have the drugs that are needed in an emergency situation, drugs that we need in medical cases such as calcium glutamate, sometimes isobutomol solution for patients with bronchial asthma, they're unavailable. We may shift to other types of drugs. Sometimes there is a deficiency of certain equipment like canulas and syringes. In surgical cases there is difficulty in checking and getting some drugs such as certain antibiotics. In a patient who is allergic to penicillin, we have difficulties in giving antibiotics.

Sometimes we have troubles in the X-ray department. We have only one machine that works, and this machine has not worked well. With certain types of X-rays, such as plan abdominal X-ray, we can't get the benefit from the film, because the film is very shiny.

Why, with borders open, are these drugs and equipment unavailable?

Dr. Alaa Yusuf: You don't ask us this question. You must go to the ministry and ask why. Other groups came here and asked the same question. Why? The sanctions have been lifted for one year. Why? Not only the drugs, but why isn't everything available?

ER chief: Such intensive drugs as cortisone, we have only five vials for 24 hours sometimes.

Dr. Alaa Yusuf: There is a given amount for every call. So they say, "These are your drugs. Deal with it, anything beyond this amount, send for it from outside. And if it's after midnight, you can't find a pharmacy, so keep the patient without this medication until the morning."

ER chief: I have no other choice.

Dr. Alaa Yusuf: You just sedate the patient. Always supportive measures; you can't treat the cause. You just give him attention. You just go around the disease, just to sedate the patient, support him, until the morning comes, then give him the medication - if it's available. That's an if. If it's available in the pharmacy.

We've heard back in America that even doctors here don't have money for medication for their own children.

Dr. Alaa Yusuf: In the old days, every one of us used to receive maybe two dollars, three dollars each month. Now salaries are going up to maybe 200, 250 dollars [a month]…If one of my family [got sick], would my salary cover [the} medication until he passed? Everybody here, when he has a problem, if he doesn't go and look for support from his family - maybe not his family directly, his father or mother, but from his tribe - he cannot support himself. Me as a doctor, I'm supposed to be the light of a community, isn't that right? So if I can't support myself, who can?

ER chief: This is the type of needle we use in the hospital. I cannot use it in children. I cannot use it in shock patients.

Dr Alaa Yusuf: There's no handle for it, you see. I don't know how to use it. I'm the best - sorry, supposed to be the best - in the hospital. But if I insert in a central venous line, subclavial, which is very complicated, believe me, it's easier for me to insert this camera in a shock patient. I don't know where…this is a postwar delivery. We didn't see this before the war. They got millions and millions of dollars of funds. They've got the oil money. They got our bank money, which was before 1990. This is a simple thing. It's not costly. Why are they bringing us the worst types? These people here deserve better. The Iraqi people have suffered. Since 1991 they have suffered. We are losing patients, we are losing friends, we are losing relatives, we are losing a lot of people around us. It's normal, someone dying around you. It's normal, hearing a bomb or a shot. It's normal, it's part of life. Just like going to have a coffee in your coffee shop. It's normal for you. It's normal for us that I turn - okay, my neighbor's dead. That's normal. I go to the hospital - oh, there's four patients shot, we're going to operate. It's normal. It's part of our life. It's the new Iraqi method of living. "Goodbye, family, I may not come back."

We people doing our jobs, these people doing their jobs - we deserve better. Who will provide that?

Is there a theoretical budget through the ministry for buying drugs? Is it all getting siphoned?

Dr Alaa Yusuf: No. You see the system here is the old system. The system didn't change. The ministry buys the drugs from the companies that are dealing with the ministry. Only private hospitals and private clinics are allowed to deal with their own sources of drugs and their own sources of equipment. They can buy whatever you want. So it's easier for me and them to go to a private hospital if I want better service - at good pay.

So private hospitals are better equipped with drugs?

Dr Alaa Yusuf: Supposed to be. Supposed to. But who's to pay?

If you have somebody you love in the family, you'll pay whatever you have to save them. You can borrow money, you can put up your house for mortgage, if you want to save your beloved one. So you must pay.

But the very poor people who are coming to our hospital here; if you go around your hospital, you can see the really low social class - which most of the Iraqi people are, the majority are low social, economically I'm talking. Most people are out of jobs. People who have jobs have very low incomes, maybe the lowest in the Middle East.

How many people do you see a day?

ERD: We see five to 10 cases of bullet injury per day.

What's the source of those injuries?

ERD: Different. [He then starts to list kinds of injuries, and turns and speaks to Yusuf quietly in Arabic, who tells him he can say anything he wants.]

Dr Alaa Yusuf: He was trying to talk about excessive force [used by Coalition forces]. Excessive force in the United States is a violation. It's a violation against even a killer. If a policeman used excessive force even against a killer, he would go to court and be sentenced. He would be out of his job and he won't find a job on the police force. These guys here [indicating security guards] never use excessive force. They've been with us since the first day they were appointed. They search us, they searched you, but they're doing their duties. So if one guy shoots at them, they shoot back at that guy. They don't shoot at the whole street.

People start to feel hate against the United States. Not the people, the poli-cy…The occupation is responsible for our security, for our living. That's in [the] Geneva [Convention]. Aren't there hands to protect these borders? There are thousands of youth who are strong with a good belief in protecting the borders. I'm not accusing anybody, but they can do better. They can do a very good job. The Iraqi army was one million. I'm not talking about officers - most of this army was not loyal to the old regime. They are forced to be in the army. They could use these people and put them on the border…