Four
Years: One Million Iraqi Deaths
By Gideon Polya
22 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org
I started
contributing articles to Countercurrents in 2004. In December 2004 in
an article entitled “Non-reportage of Mass Murder” (see:
http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-polya241204.htm
) I gave estimates of post-invasion Iraqi under-5 infants deaths and
excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen),
QUOTE:
“The latest updated
UNICEF report (December 2004) reveals massive under-5 infant mortality
in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan totalling over 0.4 million
for the year 2003. However Anglo-American-dominated global media will
simply not report this horrendous mortality in these US-occupied countries…
In late October 2004 the
prestigious UK medical journal The Lancet published an expert study
with data indicating a post-invasion excess mortality of up to about
300,000 (i.e. 180,000 per year). However there was only limited subsequent
mainstream media reportage of a lower estimate of post-invasion excess
mortality of 100,000 (arrived at by deleting mortality data from the
Fallujah area as being unrepresentative)…
My calculations published
in Australasian Science in June 2004 indicated that since the beginning
of US-UK attacks in 1991 the excess mortality in Iraq had been 1.5 million
and the under-5 infant mortality 1.2 million. My conservative estimate
that excess mortality and under-5 infant mortality were of the order
of 100,000 per year since the final invasion in March 2003 is consonant
with the latest UNICEF report (December 2004) and the data in The Lancet
paper (late October 2004).”
It is now the Fourth Anniversary
of the illegal US, UK and Australian invasion of Iraq (March 20, 2003).
Mainstream media are still IGNORING the carnage – but now the
post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths total 1 MILLION.
Peace is the only way but
silence kills and silence is complicity. We are obliged to inform others
about gross abuses of humanity. Below is a detailed, quantitative, highly
referenced letter that I have sent to mainstream media around the world
on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. But
will Mainstream media report the estimate from authoritative scientific
data that the post-invasion excess deaths now total 1 million?
Dear Sir/Madam,
Four years after the illegal US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, how
many Iraqis have died post-invasion?
Post-invasion Occupied Iraqi
excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen)
now total ONE MILLION as of March 2007, after 4 years of war and as
estimated from data from the top US medical epidemiology group in the
World’s top Public Health School (the Nobel Laureate-containing
Bloomberg School of Public Health) at the top US Johns Hopkins University,
published peer-reviewed in the top UK medical journal The Lancet and
endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts. [1-3]
Consonant with post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and
Afghan Territories totalling 1.0 million and 2.4 million, respectively,
the post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths total 0.5 million and
1.9 million, respectively; the number of refugees total 3.8 million
and 3.8 million, respectively; and, according to WHO, the annual per
capita medical expenditures permitted by the Occupiers are $64 and $23,
respectively, as compared to $2,874 (Australia), $2,389 (UK) and $5,711
(US). [4-10]
The accrual cost (i.e. the
long-term committed cost) of the Bush Iraq and Afghan Wars is now $2.5
TRILLION, this estimate coming from 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate and
former Chief Economist of the World Bank US Professor Stiglitz (Columbia)
and Professor Linda Bilmes (Harvard), who also estimate a cost of $6.5
million for each US soldier killed. Assuming the “all men are
created equal” this leads to a Reparations Bill of $ 6.5 million
x 3.4 million = $22 trillion. [11 -12]
These horrendous outcomes
indicate gross violation by the US Alliance of the Geneva Convention
Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (notably
Articles 38, 55 and 56), UN Genocide Convention (specifically Article
2) as well as of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the Rights of the Child Convention. Peace is the only way
but silence kills and silence is complicity. We are inescapably obliged
to inform everyone about horrendous abuses of humanity. [13-16]
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya
Melbourne, Australia
Key references:
[1] http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/
images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf
[2] http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-iraq-deaths-
study-was-valid-and-correct/2006/10/20/1160851135985.html
[3]
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12904/42/
[4] http://esa.un.org/unpp/
[5] http://www.unicef.org/index.php
[6] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1986147,00.html
[7] http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/country?iso=afg
[8] http://www.who.int/en/
[9] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11968/42/
[10] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12741/42/
[11] http://www.newstatesman.com/200703120024
[12] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/42/
[13] http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y4gcpcp.htm
[14] http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm
[15] http://gpolya.newsvine.com/
[16] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/
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" (Taylor & Francis, New York & London,
2003), and is currently editing a completed book on global avoidable
mortality (numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple
Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his websites: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/
, http://gpolya.newsvine.com/
and
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/
). As a radical alternative to dispassionate scientific analysis
on behalf of humanity, he has painted some huge paintings demanding
respect for Woman and Mother and Child: Sydney Madonna: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10865/26/
,
Manhattan Madonna: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10766/26/
,
Truelove: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11031/254/
and Qana: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9547/26/
.
Click
here to comment
on this article