Let’s Get Real About Iraq

This morning’s paper is loaded with sentiment about Iraq. Everything from reader’s letters to a story on the deliberations of the joint chiefs of staff prompt us to believe that the war in Iraq holds the potential for an American victory. All remind us, too, of the dedication and value of our troops stationed there.

The letters and editorials especially exhort us to remember that our soldiers serve in order to protect our freedom. Just once, I wish one of those folks who so fling that phrase around would explain exactly how the fighting in Iraq protects our freedom. Iraq never threatened our freedom. Iraq is now much less stable than it was before we invaded them. Iraq now has active Al-Qaeda cells though it did not before we invaded.

Don’t misquote me here – our military can and does protect our freedom, but it is not doing so nor has it ever done so in Iraq. We hear that if we don’t fight them there we’ll have to fight them here. If that ever turns out to be true that it will be because by the time we finally admit there is no way to win there, we will have created so many more hate filled enemies that they will attack us at home for revenge.

Characterizing what we do in Iraq as protecting our freedom satisfies those unwilling to take an honest, hard look at what we really do there. Here is a quick picture of the effect of our efforts in that country:

As Nick Turse tells us in “Bombs Over Baghdad,” the Lancet report “estimated 655,000 ‘excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war.’ The study...found that from March 2003 to June 2006, 13 percent of violent deaths in Iraq were caused by coalition air strikes. If the 655,000 figure, including over 601,000 violent deaths, is anywhere close to accurate—and the study offered a possible range of civilian deaths that ran from 392,979 to 942,636—this would equal approximately 78,133 Iraqis killed by bombs, missiles, rockets, or cannon rounds from coalition aircraft between March 2003, when the invasion of Iraq began, and last June when the study concluded.” Turse adds that, “According to statistics provided to TomDispatch by the Lancet study’s authors, 50 percent of all violent deaths of Iraqi children under 15 years of age, between March 2003 and June 2006, were due to coalition air strikes.”

Here, then, are the final rough numbers: Every day, between 50 and 100 Iraqis die as a result of “coalition” airstrikes. Every airstrike kills, on average, one Iraqi, and wounds three more. Updating the numbers from the Lancet study, we discover that overall, since the U.S. invaded Iraq, somewhere between 102,180 and 147,051 Iraqis have been killed by U.S. airstrikes alone. Between 306,540 and 441,153 have been wounded.
Z Magazine Online June 2007 Volume 20 Number 6
SPECIAL REPORT The Secret Air Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Unreported casualties By Jeff Nygaard http://zmagsite.zmag.org/June2007/nygaard0607.html

Note that this story doesn’t delineate the number of civilians that have died as the result of ground fire. They are included in the total dead, but there is no differentiation between Iraqi warriors and Iraqi civilians killed. Nor does it examine the causes of those deaths – many of which have come from the lack of health care, sanitation services, power, food, etc. which are collateral damage from our bombings.

To get a final picture of the results we have wreaked upon Iraq, we have to take a moment to remember that we were led to do this by an administration that did its best to convince the American people that Iraq had something to do with 9-11. At the time of our invasion more than one-half of Americans believed that. By now they should all know that it was not true. The fact is that we attacked Iraq not to remove Saddam Hussein from power, nor for any high minded reason, but to avenge the 3,000 deaths we suffered that day. (BushCo had their own reasons, but I believe that this is the central reason why the American people went along with it.)

The result of our invasion has been the creation – not the destruction – of enemies determined to destroy us. I ask again – who will be the next terrorist, the son whose father we kill or the father whose son we feed?

Finally, I’m asking for a straight answer to this question: Exactly how does our killing of over 500,000 people in Iraq protect our freedom? If you want me to support your war, you will have to answer this question. Just saying that’s what we are doing is not enough.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR