CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - With so much discussion focused on the number of troops needed to secure victory in Iraq - or whether victory is even on the horizon - the human travesty of the war seems to be getting lost. The real cost of this war is the loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives, many innocent civilians, including children. According to a study published in October 2006, which was overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University, 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since the war began than would have died had the war not occurred. Indeed, among the 655,000 deaths, it is estimated that 601,000 resulted from violence, while the rest were from disease and other causes. This means that about 500 violent deaths occur each day in the war-torn country.
There is no doubt that Iraq is becoming increasingly violent. Sectarian violence, coupled with political infighting, has caused an increase in bloody, deadly attacks among the various Iraqi towns. A recent study has found that an average of almost 960 attacks against Americans and Iraqis occur every week in Iraq. As a result, about 3,000 American soldiers have lost their lives and another 29,000 have been injured. Daily life in Iraq is truly dehumanizing. Car bombs are detonated on crowded streets, maiming and killing innocent people and reducing cars and markets to rubble. More recently, Iraqi insurgents have begun randomly kidnapping bystanders on crowded streets.
One day in December, 30 people were abducted in Baghdad by gunmen. That same day in a nearby neighborhood, at least 15 Iraqis were killed and 35 wounded when a series of car bombs detonated in crowded street markets.
Indeed, dead bodies are routinely found scattered about the streets as a result of random shootings and torture. As the New York Times reported, on one single day "at least 21 bodies were recovered around Baghdad, all with gunshots to the head and signs of torture." While these events are horrifying, the human travesty goes further. According to surveys conducted by the United Nations and human rights organizations, roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition as a result of the war. In November 2004, Iraq's child malnutrition rate was greater than Uganda and Haiti.
And according to one report, 60 percent of rural residents and 20 percent of urban residents have access only to contaminated water. The rise in disease and malnutrition is mainly due to poverty and the high unemployment rate since the war. As Kasim Said, a father visiting his sick 1-year-old child in the hospital, pointed out, "During the previous regime, I used to work on the government projects. Now there are no projects." As his son lay holding a Winnie the Pooh washcloth to keep the flies off his head, Said explained that even when he did find work, he only brought home $10 to $14 a day.
Another reason for the rise in disease is that the violence is so fierce that many human rights agencies are being forced to leave. Even Doctors Without Borders, a group known for its high tolerance for risk, left the country. Aside from the physical death and destruction resulting from the Iraq war, it is taking a tragic psychological toll on the Americans involved. Army studies have shown that up to 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. More significantly, a recent report found that suicides among American soldiers serving in Iraq doubled from 2004 to 2005. This is not surprising when one considers the daily life of a soldier in Iraq.
According to the Washington Post, 76 percent of soldiers say they knew someone who had been seriously injured or killed. Another 55 percent experienced the explosion of a roadside bomb or booby trap nearby. Yet with the steady increase in violence and suffering, President Bush and many in Congress insist that an increase in spending and troop levels will bring peace to the ravaged country. However, military leaders insist the our armed forces already are strained. Reinforcing Colin Powell's assessment that the military is "about broken," one general has warned Congress that the Army "will break" under today's war zone rotations.
With an already burdened military occupying Iraq and estimates placing the current cost of the war at $320 billion, it is difficult to see how more money and troops will bring resolution. Perhaps that will only mean more dead American troops and further resistance by insurgent fighters. As one Iraqi physician explains, "Yes, there is a price for every war. Yes, there are victims." Searching for an answer, he asks, "But after that?"
That is a question we all to consider. After the war, will it have been worth it?
John W. Whitehead, a lawyer and author, is founder president of the Rutherford Institute.
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