Carmakers' Brave New World

The Iraq baby-formula solution?The article "Despair Is Deep in Postwar Iraq," July 22, contains this comment about a woman struggling to feed her family: "She has just given birth to her eighth baby, and she is not sure how her husband, who earns 90 dinars a month, can provide baby formula for the child." The issue of getting enough baby formula seems to be a constant one for Iraq; formula was one of the first items Saddam mentioned when he spoke last fall of the negative effects of the embargo on Iraqis. In all the discussion of the political and humanitarian issues surrounding the Iraqi crisis, I have yet to see anyone ask why these women are not nursing their babies. Being dependent on imported baby formula seems ludicrous given the fact that women the world over possess mammary glands which exist for the sole purpose of producing the optimal food for infants. It is a tragedy for families with so little money to spend precious resources on baby formula, which is, after all, only an artificial, imperfect simulation of breast milk. Nicky Hardenbergh, Manchester, Mass.

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