Orwellian Media Won't Report
UK-US State TerrorismBy Gideon Polya
22 July, 2005
Countercurrents.orgWhether a person in an OCCUPIED COUNTRY dies VIOLENTLY or dies NON-VIOLENTLY (through deprivation or avoidable, treatable disease) the end result is the same and the CULPABILITY the same. Further, the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled and the UN-mandated Geneva Conventions specify such obligations for occupying powers.
Some mainstream media have reported the latest Iraq Body Count findings of about 25,000 post-invasion VIOLENT Iraqi civilian deaths - but still will not report the post-invasion AVOIDABLE MORTALITY (EXCESS MORTALITY) in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories that now totals 1.9 MILLION (from the latest UN Population Division data, see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1) (see also: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ and http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html).
In general, the Orwellian mainstream media will simply NOT report the horrendous consequences of UK-US state terrorism in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories. In relation to "terrorism" there is a huge gulf between mainstream media reportage and actual reality - a huge media lie encapsulated in the dishonest and semantically absurd phrase "War on Terror".
In George Orwell's "1984", Big Brother perverted reality by "re-writing history", perverted the English language through "Newspeak" and perverted mathematics - the language of the universe - by the proposition "2 plus 2 does not equal 4". "1984" has well and truly arrived with the dishonestly named "War on Terror" and Orwellian mainstream media lies and "slies" (spin-based untruths) about the horrendous human consequences of war by the US-led Coalition in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Decent people need to regain the very meaning of words by asking questions such as: What is terror? Who are being terrorized? and Who are the terrorists? We must have zero tolerance for mathematical abuse in this Orwellian War on Truth and attempt to actually QUANTIFY global terror and terrorism, MEASURE the human consequences of terrorism and RANK the state and non-state terrorists in terms of the carnage they cause.
These questions are addressed in recent articles "Quantifying deaths by terrorism in the world" in Al-Jazeerah (see: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2005%
20Opinion%20Editorials/July/17%20o/Quantifying%
20Deaths%20By%20Terrorism%20in%20the%
20World%20By%20Gideon%20Polya.htm), "UK and US world's worst terrorist states" (see: http://www.mwcnews.net/index.php?option=
com_content&task=view&id=724&Itemid=26) and "Global terror and UK-US state terrorism" (see: http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=1341).What is terror? "Terror" is defined in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary as "intense fear" and "terrorists" "terrorize" by "coercive intimidation" i.e. by inducing "intense fear".
How can we quantify terror? The "degree of terror" is related to the "perception of avoidable death" for ourselves or our loved ones i.e. to the "perceived probability of avoidable death". ACTUAL TERROR - as opposed to "terror" manufactured by lying Anglo-American mainstream media spin, lies and "slies" (spin-based untruths) - is reflected in the "probability of avoidable death" in any year for the victims. However it must be recognized that the relationship between "terror" and "probability of avoidable death" varies for different people and is not "linear". Thus the hero of "1984" was finally broken by threatened facial exposure to a rat whereas the iconic Australian bushranger Ned Kelly coolly went to the noose with the famous quip "Such is life". Further, one supposes that one's "terror" at being in a swimming pool with one man-eating shark would be similar to that with a dozen. Nevertheless there is clearly a connection between "perceived risk" and feelings of concern, anxiety, fear and terror. People can resign themselves to inevitable death (as we all do and as dramatized by the sailors on the Titanic) but "fear" is related to "risk" of potentially avoidable untimely demise.
The empirically-estimated "PROBABILITY OF DEATH EACH YEAR" is:
1 in 3.3 million (0.00003%) (for Western civilians at the hands of jihadist terrorists);
1 in 3 million (US citizen being killed by a shark);
1 in 4 million (US citizen being electrocuted);
1 in 6 million (US citizen being struck by lightning);
1 in 500,000 (0.0002%) (US citizen at the hands of jihadists in the 21st century)
1 in 10,000) (0.01%) (from car accident in the US);
1 in 1,250 (0.08%) (under-5 year old infant in Australia FROM ALL CAUSES);
1 in 1,000 (0.1%) (from cigarette smoking-related causes in the US);
1 in 38 (2.6%) (under-5 year old infants in UK-US-occupied Iraq);
1 in 17 (5.8%) (for under-5 year old infants in occupied Afghanistan).
TERROR indeed for tens of millions of Iraqi and Afghan parents - but clearly TERRORISM, MASS MURDER, MASS INFANTICIDE and HORRENDOUS WAR CRIMES by the US-led Coalition in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories.
Who are being terrorized? Clearly the parents of Iraqi and Afghan infants are being terrorized. The probability of getting heads when you toss a coin is 1 in 2. The probability of death for each try in Russian roulette with a 6 shooter is 1 in 6. Would you cross the road without lights if the probability of death was 1/2, 1/6, 1/17 or 1/38? Wouldn't you be in immense fear for your loved ones if they had mortality odds such as this?
Who are the worst terrorists? PASSIVE GENOCIDE by the US in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories (through non-provision of life-sustaining requisites demanded by the Geneva Conventions) kills 0.4 MILLION under-5 year old infants EACH YEAR, this corresponding to 1,000 (ONE THOUSAND) avoidable under-5 infant deaths EACH DAY. The post-invasion avoidable mortality in the Iraqi and Afghan Territories now totals 1.9 million.(see the latest UNICEF report: http://www.unicef.org/ , Global Avoidable Mortality: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ and http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html). In contrast, in the last 20 years the jihadists have murdered 5,000 Western victims (noting that the total Western population is about 760 million).
In harshly objective, "terror"-related terms of imposed "annual probability of death" for civilians, the US-led Coalition has outdone the jihadists and Arab insurgents by a factor of about 4/0.00003 = 133,000. However we can apply other measures to US state terrorism. Thus the " death ratio" of "total enemy deaths"/ "Allied military deaths" in World War 2 was 0.6 - however in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories the post-invasion ratio of "total enemy deaths" /"US military deaths" has been about 1,900,000/2,000 = 950 and the ratio of "enemy infant deaths"/"US military deaths" has been 1,500,000/2,000 = 750.
Let there be no equivocation - murdering and terrorizing innocent people is evil and vile. In reponse to the awful London bombings, the normally rather subdued Australian Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kim Beazley, vigorously stated of the perpetrators: "These terrorists are subhuman filth and must be captured and eliminated" (The Australian, 8 July 2005; see letters, The Age, Melbourne 11 July 2005). How then should we describe the Coalition perpetrators of mass infanticide in Iraq and Afghanistan? How should we describe the Orwellian mainstream media who are complicit in horrendous Anglo-American state terrorism?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people must inform everyone. We must escape from the media-constructed Orwellian travesty, regain the English language and apply the numerical language of the cosmos - 2 plus 2 still equals 4.
Dr Gideon Polya
29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
Day & night telephone: +61 3 9459 3649
Credentials: Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality - numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
