Iraq: The Civilian Toll
In their great wisdom and sense of responsibility to the world at large, it has now been revealed perhaps conclusively, the results of the good that the United States of America proposed to impose upon a country geographically far removed from its shores.Six hundred thousand is a whole whopping big figure to contemplate. Making one hundred, fifty-one sound, by comparison, somewhat more slight in nature. Deaths, human deaths.
If we're speaking of one and a half hundred-thousand, or six hundred thousand the figures representing in the first instance what other sources had presumed was correct as opposed to a new survey co-jointly estimated by the Iraqi government and the World Health Organization representing the latter, a sigh of relief might be anticipated.
But why, when what is being discussed is the deaths through violent misadventure - the fog of war and its destabilizing aftermath - of a mind-numbing number of once-vibrant human beings meeting their untimely deaths. These numbers represent individuals who once went about their daily lives ,however they managed, under the tyranny of a world-class monster, but most of whom were assured the protection of the state.
And who succumbed to a new reign of terror imposed upon them by the very real fact of their country being invaded by a coalition of foreign forces, determined to change their country's governorship and irreversibly alter its politics, cultural traditions and civil society. However well-meaning the invaders' intent, those on the receiving end of invasion could view them no other way than as a foreign menace to immediate security.
Quite apart from those who lost their lives through military-stimulated violence and the resulting counter-offensive, many succumbed to circumstances beyond their control as a captive population. Losing their lives through a 60% increase in non-violent, yet precipitate deaths through starvation, infections, and ordinary human health afflictions that would, under normal circumstances be treatable and curable.
Yet this three-year toll of death is celebrated as representing one-quarter of the toll estimated previously through a smaller survey conducted by Iraqi and Johns Hopkins researchers, published in 2006. The lower epidemic of death through means foul, deliberate and alternately incidental represents a massive loss of life nonetheless by any standards.
And then there are the additional tolls not represented by this survey. Add to the survey results a huge vulnerability in peoples' expectations for their futures as they witnessed and often became victims to the atrocities conducted in the name of the sectarian divides in Islam.
Those living in an atmosphere of fear reeking with the promise of instant death, and occasionally gruesome torture first, death later.
How about the collapse of the country's civic structures, leaving its populations void of potable water, sufficient foods, emergency medicines and life-sustaining pharmaceuticals for chronic and treatable conditions. The miserable irritations, above and beyond the fear for one's life, of not having a reliable energy source to enable one to attempt to go about a daily life.
Then there's the spectre, now complete, of neighbourhood ethnic and/or sectarian cleansing. The shifting of populations from one area to another in a dire emergency of leave or be slaughtered. Again, migrations away from the proximity to certain death delivered by those who were once trusted neighbours; a complete shift out of the country as refugees flooded across neighbouring borders to become grudgingly unwelcome guests.
Have we missed anything there?
Labels: Middle East, Realities, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, January 10, 2008
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