Comparing Japanese,
Jihadist &
UK-US War Crimes
By Gideon Polya
11 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Our horror at the senseless and evil killing
of so many innocent people in the London bombing atrocities should reinforce
our profound objection to all terrorist violence, whether "non-state
terrorism" by jihadists or "state terrorism" by the US-led
Coalition. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the final end of
World War 2 , it is useful to compare the human cost of jihadist terrorism
and UK-US state terrorism with other violent crimes against humanity
such as WW2 war crimes. The following statistics demonstrate the profound
dishonesty, racism and disproportionality of the UK-US "War on
Terror".
The average annual death rate of Australian POWs under the Japanese
in World War 2 was 10.4% (10.4 per 100 per year) (8,000 deaths out of
22,000 POWs over 3.5 years) [1]. For war crimes such as this the Japanese
Prime Minister Tojo and General Yamashita were tried, convicted and
hanged.
The violent Iraqi civilian deaths associated with the invasion and occupation
of Iraq have totalled about 23,000 - 26,000 according to Iraq Body Count
[2]. However post-invasion "avoidable mortality" (excess mortality)
and "under-5 infant mortality" have totalled about 0.4 million
and 0.3 million, respectively, for Occupied Iraq, 1.5 million and 1.2
million, respectively, for Occupied Afghanistan and have totalled 1.9
million and 1.5 million, respectively, for the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan
Territories as a whole [3].
The latest UNICEF report (2005) [4] estimates that in 2003 the under-5
infant mortality was 110,000 in Occupied Iraq, 292,000 in Occupied Afghanistan
and 1,000 in the invading and occupying country Australia noting that
in 2003 these countries had populations of 25, 24 and 20 million, respectively,
and that the under-5 year olds in these countries totalled 4.2, 5.0
and 1.3 million, respectively. From this one can calculate that the
current annual under-5 infant death rate is about 2.6% (2.6 per 100
under-5 year old infants per year), 5.8% (5.8 per 100) and 0.08% (0.08
per 100), respectively, for Occupied Iraq, Occupied Afghanistan and
the occupying country Australia [5, 6].
It can be estimated
that jihadists and insurgents have killed about 5,000 Western civilians
over the last 20 years (mostly on 9/11 and in Israel, with the remainder
from atrocities such as those of Bali, Madrid and London). One can calculate
that the average annual death rate of Western civilians (current population
about 760 million) from jihadist and insurgent violence has been 0.00003
per 100 per year i.e. 0.00003% (over the last 20 years) [7] and 0.0001
per 100 per year or 0.0001% (over the last 5 years).
Thus the annual death rates of under-5 year old infants in US-occupied
Afghanistan (5.8%) and in US-occupied Iraq (2.6%) are of a similar order
of magnitude to the annual death rate of WW2 Australian POWs under the
Japanese (10.4%), these death rates being 26,000-350,000 times greater
than the annual death rates of Western civilians from jihadist violence
of 0.00003% (over the last 20 years) and 0.0001% (over the last 5 years).
Notwithstanding some horrendous terrorist atrocities (most notably that
of 9/11), Western laws and security procedures are clearly very effective
in protecting Western civilians from the evil of jihadist terrorism.
Nevertheless the full human cost of jihadist violence has overwhelmingly
been realized through the utterly disproportionate carnage of the US-led
war against Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus the total of Western civilian
deaths at the hands of jihadists over the last 20 years (about 5,000)
is only 0.26% of the post-invasion avoidable mortality (excess mortality)
in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories (1.9 million).
The horrendous post-invasion avoidable mortality (excess mortality)
and under-5 infant mortality in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories
cannot be dismissed by racist assertions that such conditions are somehow
"normal" for such non-European countries. Avoidable mortality
is defined as the difference between the ACTUAL mortality in a country
and the mortality EXPECTED for a peaceful country with the same demographics
[3]. Thus my estimates of avoidable mortality for Iraq (which sits on
about 20% of the World's oil) are based on comparisons with its impoverished
and resource-poor but peaceful neighbours Syria and Jordan. Further,
the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled and responsibilities of Occupiers
for subject civilians are set out explicitly in the Fourth Geneva Conventions
that were ratified in 1950 [8].
Thus Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention for protection of civilians
in time of war [8] states (in part): " To the fullest extent of
the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring
and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities,
the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health
and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to
the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures
necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.
Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their
duties".
Article 59 states (in part): "If the whole or part of the population
of an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power
shall agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and
shall facilitate them by all the means at its disposal".
The horrendous post-invasion and under-5 infant mortality in the Occupied
Iraqi and Afghan Territories clearly derives from non-provision of life-sustainig
requisites by the occupying Coalition powers in clear contravention
of Articles 56 and 59. Thus a powerful indicator of Coalition criminality
is that the annual per capita medical expenditure in the Occupied Iraqi
and Afghan Territories is less than 1% of that in metropolitan USA..
The consequent mass mortality must be described as passive genocide
[9, 10] and the UK, the US and their Coalition partners should be indicted
before the International Criminal Court for egregious war crimes committed
against defenceless civilian populations, noting that a very high proportion
of the victims are infants under the age of 5.
The obscenity of the US-led "War on Terror" can be summarized
by the following list of ascending death statistics: about 2,000 US
military deaths [11]; 3,000 deaths on 9/11; about 5,000 Western civilian
deaths from jihadist violence over the last 20 years; 23,000-27,000
post-invasion violent civilian deaths [2]; 1.5 million post-invasion
under-5 infant deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories (of
which about 90% have been avoidable); and a total post-invasion avoidable
mortality (excess mortality) in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan of 1.9
million [3, 12].
The carnage continues because mainstream Anglo-American media steadfastly
refuse to report the horrrendous avoidable mortality and infant mortality
in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories. Over 60 years ago the
Jewish Holocaust (6 million victims) was not officially recognized as
such by the Allies until 30 months before the end of World War 2. Now
everyone very properly knows about the Jewish Holocaust but the WW2
man-made Bengal Famine in British-ruled India (4 million victims) is
a "forgotten holocaust" - it has been largely deleted from
British history and from general public perception by a continuing process
of racist holocaust denial by media, politicians and academics [3, 13].
Lying by omission and commission by mainstream Anglo-American media
permitted the US Administration to make war and continues to hide the
horrendous human consequences of the US-led "War on Terror".
The Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq (spokesperson the
famous Indian writer and humanitarian Arundhati Roy) has issued a final
declaration that charges the UK, the US and their Coalition partners
with war crimes over Iraq and also lambasts complicit media [14, 15].
Non-reportage of the horrendous human consequences of the Coalition
invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan has made the cowardly, racist and dishonest
Anglo-American mainstream media complicit in horrendous UK-US war crimes.
We all know the adage attributed to George Santayana that history ignored
yields history repeated. Racist Anglo-American corporate media are bent
on denying horrendous war crimes as they are being committed.
References
[1] ABC Radio National, January 2003, "Prisoners of war: Australians
under Nippon" (see: http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:
2FAM0fNn8ywJ:www.abc.net.au/rn/summer/summer2002
/pow.htm+australian+pow+deaths+japanese&hl=en)
[2] Iraq Body Count (see: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database/)
[3] Global Avoidable Mortality (see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/
)
[4] UNICEF report (2005) (see: http://www.unicef.org/)
[5] Gideon Polya, News Central Asia, July 2005, "Global Terror
& UK-US state terrorism"(see: http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1341
)
[6] United Nations Population Division (2005) (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1
)
[7] Gideon Polya, News Central Asia, "Global Terror and UK-US state
terrorism" (see: http://www.newscentralasia.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1341 )
[8] Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva Convention
relative to protection of civilian persons in time of war (see:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm)
[9] Gideon Polya, Countercurrents, March, 2005, "Passive genocide
in Iraq" (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya110305.htm)
[10] Gideon Polya, Al-Jazeerah, March 2005. "Passive genocide by
Coalition in Iraq" (see: http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials
/2005%20Opinion%20Editorials/March/13%20o/
Passive%20genocide%20by%20Coalition%20in%20
Iraq%20By%20Gideon%20Polya.htm)
[11] Coalitian military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/
)
[12] Gideon Polya website (see: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
)
[13] Jane Austen and blog (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/
)
[14] Declaration of World Tribunal on Iraq Jury of Conscience (see:
http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=91
)
[15] Gideon Polya, "UN, World Tribunal & Arundhati Roy expose
UK-US war crimes" (see: http://blogmark.mg.co.za/?q=node/1553
)
Dr Gideon Polya
Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
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