At 11.11.11 On 11.11.11 Remember Huge Civilian Deaths In US Wars
By Dr Gideon Polya
13 November, 2011
Countercurrents.org
History ignored yields history repeated. That in part is why at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of each year since the WW1 Armistice Day in 1918 people have held 1 minute's silence to remember the war dead. However in subsequent wars civilian deaths vastly outnumbered military deaths as killing technology advanced. On Remembrance Day (Armistice Day) we should remember all who died in wars, both civilians and soldiers. 12 million Muslims, mostly civilians, have died so far in the post-1990 US War on Muslims.
Remembrance Day (Armistice Day) is peculiar in that at the time of 11.11.11 on the day of 11.11.11, the time (at 11 seconds past 11 minutes past 11 o'clock) and the date (11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of the 21st century) will be a perfect same-numbered palindrome, reading the same backwards as forwards, an event which can only happen on one day every 100 years. This singularity should provide impetus for the World to recognize the continuing, genocidal carnage in the post-1990 US Alliance War on Muslims that has so far been associated with about 12 million war-related deaths, a Muslim Holocaust and a Muslim Genocide that is resolutely ignored by the Mainstream media, academics and politicians of the Western Murdochracies (Big Money buys truth and votes) and Lobbyocracies (Big Money buys politicians and policy).
“Holocaust” and “Genocide” have very precise meanings. Holocaust simply means the death of a huge number of people as exampled by the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million people killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation), the WW2 Holocaust in general (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed), the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death by the British in 1942-1945) and the 35 million Chinese killed associated with the Japanese occupation of China in the1930s and 1940s.
However the definition of “genocide” by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention involves Assessment of “intent' by those responsible and states “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
“Intent” to commit mass murder is only rarely explicitly expressed by mass murderers or serial killers but can be readily determined from sustained, remorseless conduct. The US Alliance has been involved in sustained, remorseless active and passive killing of Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, NW Pakistan, Libya and indeed around the World as summarized below.
Palestinian Holocaust, Palestinian Genocide : 0.1 million violent deaths and 1.4 million war- and occupation-related avoidable deaths from deprivation,1948-2011; 0.3 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 1967-2011; 0.2 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 1967-2011(75% avoidable and due to US Alliance-backed Apartheid Israel war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention and the UN Genocide Convention), 7 million refugees (see “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ).
Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide : as of October 2011, 5.6 million war-related deaths, 2001-2011; 1.4 million post-invasion violent deaths; 4.2 million non-violent excess deaths from deprivation; 2.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention and the UN Genocide Convention), 3-4 million refugees plus 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees (see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ).
Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide : for the period 2003- 2011, 2.7 million post-invasion war-related deaths, 1.5 million violent deaths, 1.2 million non-violent excess deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 0.8 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 5-6 million refugees; for the period 1990-2003, 0.2 million violent deaths, 1.7 million non-violent excess deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 1.2 million under-5 infant deaths; for the period 1990-2011, 4.6 million war-related deaths, 1.7 million violent deaths, 2.9 million deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 2.0 million under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention and the UN Genocide Convention) (see Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ).
Somali Holocaust, Somali Genocide: in the period 1992-2011 (this successively involving US, Ethiopian and most recently Kenyan invasion), 0.4 million violent deaths, 1.8 million avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 1.3 million under-5 year old infant deaths( 90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention and the UN Genocide Convention), and 2.0 million refugees.
Libyan Holocaust, Libyan Genocide from 2011 onwards: before the France-UK-US (FUKUS) Coalition invasion the under-5 infant mortality was only 19 per 1,000 births in Libya as compared to 8 in the US; the FUKUS Coalition has killed up to 50,000 Libyans and wounded 50,000 already; the FUKUS-backed rebels are ethnically cleansing "Black Libyans"; Tawerga, formerly with a population of 10,000 mainly black Libyans, has been destroyed and completely ethnically cleansed; 1 million sub-Saharan refugees have fled Libya; refugees total about 1.1 million; the Libyan Holocaust and Libyan Genocide has just begun.
Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust : the above atrocities are dwarfed by the 1950-2005 excess deaths in the mostly post-colonial Muslim World that totalled 0.6 billion (see my book "Body Count. Global voidable mortality since 1950", G.M. Polya, Melbourne , 2007, and "Global avoidable mortality": http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ).
Climate Holocaust, Climate Genocide : man-made global warming increasingly impacts the current 18 million annual avoidable deaths from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; estimates from top UK climate scientists Dr James Lovelock and Professor Kevin Anderson point to 10 billion avoidable deaths this century due to unaddressed global warming, this including 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims in a near-terminal, 21st century Muslim Holocaust , 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis) (see “Climate Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ).
As illustrated by the worsening Climate Genocide, the Muslim Holocaust is just one part of the genocidal attack of the greedy, racist and genocidal 1% on the 99% of Humanity that is now rising up as evidenced by the Occupy Movement.
On 10 November 2011 Professor Bruce Scates (Chair of History and Australian Studies at Monash University) wrote an article in The Age, Melbourne, entitled “What have we forgotten this Remembrance Day?” in which he remembers those who wore white poppies (as opposed to red poppies) in the 1920s and 1930s to protest against war: "Those who wore white poppies [in the 1920s and 1930s] asked for a stronger statement, an admission that lasting peace could not be achieved by human conflict, a recognition that only reconciliation and tolerance could unite rather than divide the nations (and religions) of the world, a call for peace with justice. We had need of this voice in the 1920s and 1930s as the world careered towards the evils of war and fascism. We have need of it again" (see: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/what-have-we-forgotten-this-remembrance-day-20111109-1n6ux.html ).
The Age kindly published the following comments by me on this humane article:
“What we have also forgotten are the huge numbers of civilians who died in post-WW1 wars. Until the advent of the influenza epidemic, military deaths vastly exceeded civilian deaths (except in Turkey where the Allied and ANZAC invasion precipitated deadly Turkish xenophobia and the Armenian Genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered). Thus in WW2 the Western Theatre Holocaust killed 30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies, mostly civilians . In the east, 37 million Chinese perished under the Japanese and in the WW2 Bengali Holocaust 6-7 million Indians were starved to death by the British (Australia played its part by withholding wheat from its huge wheat stockpile on orders from the British). We have now had over 20 years of a US Alliance War on Muslims in which 12 million people, overwhelming civilians and substantially children, have died from violence or war-imposed deprivation. About 100,000 Australian servicemen have died in foreign wars. However in the last 10 years in Afghanistan war related deaths total 5.6 million, the carnage including 4.2 million deaths from war-imposed deprivation (UN Population Division data), an estimated 1.4 million violent deaths (from Iraq War comparisons), and 2.9 million under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention)”, and (in response to bald denial and abusive comment):
“The roundup and massacre of the Armenian Community leaders began on 24 April 1915, the day before the Allied landing but after months of Allied shelling of the Dardanelles . Turkey was simultaneously being attacked by Russia in the East and by the British in Iraq . Armenians acknowledge 24 April as Armenian Genocide Day and it is no coincidence that this is the day before Anzac Day, 25 April, marking the ANZAC invasion of Turkey . For the details and context of the Armenian Genocide read "Denial.History Betrayed" by Professor Tony Taylor; "With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide" by Professor Colin Tatz and "The History and Sociology of Genocide: by Professors Chalk and Jonassohn. Conversely, conservative Australian historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC provides no mention of the Armenian Genocide in his "A Short History of the World" and his "A Very Short History of the World" (for details of this remarkable omission Google "Kim Kardashian publicizes Armenian Genocide").
War is evil and increasingly sophisticated high technology killing has hugely increased the numbers of civilians killed in wars. Civilian deaths in wars now greatly exceed the number of combatants killed. Thus while US casualties totaled about 108,000 in post-1950 US Asian war (36, 516 in Korea, 58,151 in Indo-China and 6,280 in the War on Terror; see “United States casualties of war”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war ), the violent Asian deaths and non-violent Asian deaths from war-imposed deprivation now total about 30 million.
Conclusions.
Remembrance Day (Armistice Day) is often used by warmongers to glorify war but should be used to remember, expose and protest the huge civilian deaths in post-WW2 US wars. History ignored yields history repeated. Genocide ignored yields genocide repeated. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We must speak out against past and ongoing genocidal violence. About 50% of the populations devastated by the US Alliance in post-WW2 wars have been children. Civilians and children in particular have been major victims of these wars. Thou shalt not kill children. Sanctions and boycotts are urgently required to stop the scourge of US state terrorism and genocidal US Alliance violence.
Dr Gideon Polya currently teaches science students at a major Australian university. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has recently published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has just published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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