responsible deaths of over 250,000 civilians in Iraq
by John Stokes
New studies make the Bush
administration's "liberation" argument for a 'pre-emptive'
war against Iraq seem questionable.
The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by
U.S.-led coalition forces has been responsible for the death
of at least 150,000 civilians (not including certain of
Iraq), reveals a compilitation of scientific studies and
corroborated eyewitness testimonies.
The majority of these deaths, which are
in addition those normally expected from natural causes,
illness and accidents, have been among women and children,
documents a well-researched study, that had been released by
The Lancet Medical Journal.
The report in the British journal is
based on the work of teams from the Johns Hopkins University
and Columbia University in the U.S., and the Al-Mustansiriya
University in Baghdad.
A similar methodology was used in the
late 1990's to calculate the number of deaths from the war
in Kosovo, put at 10,000.
The information was obtained as Iraqi
interviewers surveyed 808 families, consisting of 7,868
people, in 33 different "clusters" or neighbourhoods spread
across the country.
In each case, they asked how many births
and deaths there had been in the home since January 2002.
That information was then compared with
the death rates in each neighbourhood in the 15 months
before the invasion that toppled president Saddam Hussein,
adjusted for the different time frames, and extrapolated to
cover the entire 24.4 million population of Iraq.
The most common cause of death is as a
direct result of a worsening 'culture of violence', mostly
caused by indiscriminate U.S. co-ordinated air strikes, and
related military interventions, reveals the study of almost
1000 households scattered across Iraq. And the risk of
violent death just after the invasion was 58 times greater
than before the war. The overall risk of death was 1.5 times
more after the invasion than before.
The on-going American Occupation has also
created worsened civil strife as well as mass environmental
destructions and related public health problems that is
associated with American bomb-related released radioactive
and other life-threatening pollutions. The American
Occupation has also prevailed over the neglect to the
repairing of vital public services-related infrastructure,
which include U.S.-led destructions of water systems.
The figure of 100,000 had been based on
somewhat "conservative assumptions", notes Les Roberts at
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,
U.S., who led the study.
That estimate excludes Falluja, a hotspot
for violence. If the data from this town is included, the
compiled studies point to about 250,000 excess deaths since
the outbreak of the U.S.-led war.
Many Americans have complained that more
than $200 billion U.S. tax dollars have been diverted from
vitally needed public services in the United States, into
apparently reckless activities. These activities are
resulting in inflicted mass-casualities against totally
innocent civilians, which have worsened conditions for
political extremism, and ensuing "terrorism".
It is well documented that such
activities are being viewed by many Iraqis, and other
peoples internationally, to undermine a popular feeling of
international security in general. Indeed, polls suggest
that Americans felt much more secure under the former
political ledership of U.S. President Bill Clinton, as
compared to the militaristic strategies which are being
pursued by the George W. Bush administration.