“How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say; 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We’ve lost about 2,140 of our own troops” – George W. Bush, 12 December 2005.
As the Occupation of Iraq is approaching three years, the mass murder of Iraqi civilians is not questioned, but normalised in Western conscience. President Bush reached the stage where he is able to make his own figure of Iraqi deaths, with no remorse or sadness. The war was not the result of “wrong intelligence”; the war was an illegal act of aggression, and a premeditated mass murder. ‘Democracy’ is used as a tool to manipulate the public and justify war crimes.
The most conservative estimate of Iraqi deaths was reported in October 2004 by a group of medical scientists from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Columbia University and Al-Mustansiriyah School of Medicine in Baghdad. The conservative estimate of more than 100,000 Iraqi deaths was published in the reputed and peer-reviewed British medical journal the Lancet. If one includes the atrocities in Fallujah, Ramadi, al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Hillah, Baghdad and the daily mayhem instigated by U.S. forces and their collaborators, the number of Iraqis killed since March 2003 would be in the 200,000 mark or even more. It also estimated that 85 per cent of all violent deaths are by “coalition forces” and that many of these are due to U.S. aerial bombardments. The majority of the victims were innocent women and children.
According to Robert Fisk of the Independent; “The Ministry of Health figures in July alone, was 1,100 Iraqi deaths in Baghdad alone. If you spread that across, Mosul, Kirkuk, maybe Irbil [in the north], all way down to Basra [in the south], through the months, and you must be talking of 3,000 to 4,000 a month. That’s 36,000 to 48,000 a year”. This makes the “100,000 figure of [the Lancet study] rightly as being quite conservative”, added Fisk. This figure has been recently substantiated.
However, the Lancet study was deliberately ignored or dismissed by the U.S.-British corporate mass media. In fact the study is now censored by mainstream media because it shows a mass murder. The media and Western elites roles have always been to selectively describe crimes allegedly – never proven – committed by the regime of Saddam Hussein as “mass murder”, while dismissing crimes committed by Western powers.
Since October 2004, the violence of the Occupation is increasing, and the daily bloodshed is mounting. The indiscriminate and savage aerial and ground bombardments – with chemical bombs, fire bombs (fuel-air bombs), napalm and other non-conventional weapons (WMD) – of population centres continue the destruction of the country and the killing innocent of Iraqis en mass. In addition, the U.S. and British governments are secretly sponsoring the killings of prominent Iraqi politicians, intellectuals, academics, religious leaders and trade union leaders, including leaders of the Oil Workers Union using U.S.-British trained death squads and criminals. The aim is to incite civil strife and destroy the unity of Iraq to serve U.S. imperialist strategy. The US invaded Iraq to destroy its unity and conquest its oil resources at the expense of the Iraqi people.
The real motives for the war remain conspicuously hidden from the public: the colonisation of Iraq to enhance U.S. imperial dominance, the destruction of Arab nationalism, and most importantly support for Israel’s Zionist expansion and criminal policies against the Palestinians. Moreover, the most relevant was that public consent in the West has been manufactured and the U.S. had its way to commit a ‘Supreme International Crime’ against defenceless people, disguised as ‘spreading democracy’. Iraq under U.S.-British Occupation is far more dictatorial and miserable place to live in than under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Occupation is just another clone of Fascism.
The view from Iraq is that since the invasion; “Iraqis have been living in fear, poverty, oppression and a lack of freedom … The occupation troops have resorted to excessive force, indiscriminate killing and collective punishment of the population. They have besieged entire towns, storming into them, instilling fear and horror among residents and destroying their homes. Iraqis have been humiliated and stripped of their basic human rights; they have been subjected to brutal and ghastly forms of torture, as the infamous Abu Ghraib prison case and the British troops’ abuse of detainees in Basra have shown”. (The Guardian, 15 December 2005).
A recent UNICEF rapid assessment survey reveals that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children had almost doubled since before the war, jumping from 4 per cent to almost 8 per cent. The survey adds that; “Acute malnutrition sets in very fast and is strong indicator of the overall health of children”. The general health of Iraqi children, the elderly and pregnant women in particular has declined because of continue deteriorating of the living conditions. Since the invasion three years ago, Iraq still lack of access to potable water, food, adequate electricity supply, hospital care, and a sharp decline in Iraqis purchasing power due to the 70 per cent unemployment.
As the war continues and the bloodshed mounting, the U.S. and British powers are orchestrating elections that will legitimise their imperial interests at the expense of the Iraqi people. Illegitimate and fraudulent elections are no substitute for free, fare and democratic elections. This is consistent with the West own demand for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon before last March elections. The Bush Administration should apply the same in Iraq. There can be legitimate elections while Iraq is under occupation and its oil wealth is looted by the invaders. It is not democracy; it is criminal.
Like the January 2005 elections, these elections are for propaganda purpose designed to fool the rest of the world and cover-up the U.S. colonial aim in Iraq. Behind the scenes and against the wishes of the Iraqi people, the looting of Iraq’s oil wealth and the colonisation of Iraq’s economy is a reality. The new production sharing agreements (PSAs) between big U.S. and British oil corporations enforced foreign control of Iraq’s resources. Every day passed, the occupation of Iraq is becoming more deadly and long lasting.
Furthermore, the U.S. and Britain are interfering directly in the elections by planting false articles in the Iraqi press to report favourably on the U.S. Occupation and to promote U.S. candidate. Iyad Allawi is presented by the U.S. and British mass media as the “strong man” and “only hope”, for Iraq. In October, Iraqis were forced to vote on a divisive and sectarian U.S.-crafted Constitution and now they are voting to implement that division. It doesn’t matter how many Iraqis vote in the elections, these elections do not represent the aspiration of the Iraqi people for free, democratic and sovereign Iraq. These elections are imposed from outside and at gun point.
The outcome of these fraudulent elections is a forgone conclusion. The result won’t change the situation on the ground. Imported Iraqi expatriate conmen and religious clerics, with their own militias and death squads are serving as the façade of the Occupation. The current coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which includes conman Ahmed Chalabi, is posed to win most of the votes. The C.I.A stooge, Iyad Allawi may be added to give the new puppet government a ‘secular’ colour with a corruption test. Together with the Kurdish warlords, the UIA will most likely continue to serve the U.S. Occupation, because they depend on its ongoing presence. The Occupation and its associated violence benefit the U.S. and its allies. Iraqis are stuck in the Occupation’s quagmire.
In addition to the U.S. and Britain, the Iranian regime is doing everything to keep its fanatic stooges in power in Iraq. There have been reports of ballots forgery and rigging on massive scale, including the participation of over a million illegal Iranians in the Iraqi elections. A stable Iraq has never been part of Iran policy, and the current environment of ongoing U.S. Occupation of Iraq is in Iran interests.
The vast majority of Iraqis are rejecting the U.S. Occupation. A recent poll conducted by the British Ministry of Defence in August 2005 reveals that over 82 per cent of Iraqis are “strongly opposed” to the presence of the occupying forces in Iraq. Less than 1 per cent of Iraqis think the Occupation forces are responsible for any improvement in security. If one excludes the Kurdish region of Iraq – where the U.S. has some support – from the poll, the anti-Occupation sentiment is even higher. George Bush refusal to set time for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq is also contrary to the “tentative agreement” reached on 21 November 2005 at the Arab League-sponsored Cairo conference, by Iraqi leaders, including the current puppet government.
So, if the elections have any chance of achieving the aim of the Iraqi people, which is the FULL and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, then Iraqis will look forward to better future in independent Iraq. Only after liberation and national independence, Iraq can have truly free, fare and democratic elections. Westerners, Americans in particular should liberate themselves from the anti-Arab colonial ideology of deep-seated belief in cultural superiority to indigenous Iraqis. Iraqis do not need to prove their capability and place in history. Democracy can not be imposed and achieved by violence; democracy is planted and nurtured by the people.
For three years, the mass media didn’t dare to ask about the number of Iraqi deaths, and have deliberately covered up the mass murder of innocent Iraqis. President Bush wasn’t asked by a reporter, but by someone from the public when he responds to a question. Bush’s lowest estimate of Iraqi deaths is consistent with his style of deception, 30,000 or 200,000 deaths; Bush is admitting to have committed mass murder. What for?
There were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, and Iraqis have never posed a threat to the American people. It wasn’t because of faulty intelligence, as the Bush-media spin suggests. The war instigated with clear conscious of the truth. The UN declared the war on Iraq an “illegal” act of aggression in violations of UN Charter. The invasion of Iraq is rightly described by Noble laureate, Harold Pinter, as:”An act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law”.
It is legally argued by attorney Michael Ratner, the former director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, and past president of the National Lawyer’s Guild that: “Article 2131 of the UN Charter requires that international disputes be settled by peaceful means so that international peace, security and justice are not endangered; Article 2141 requires that force shall not by used in any manner that is inconsistent with the purposes of the UN and Article 33 requires that parties to a dispute shall first of all seek a solution by negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies, or other peaceful means”. Force can not be used based on assumption and bogus intelligence.
It follows, that there is an overwhelming prima facia evidence to indict George W. Bush and his accomplices with war crimes and crime against humanity. If the American people justify the death penalty for Americans who committed murderous crimes in America, they should not ignore those who committed mass murder in Iraq.
Global Research Contributing Editor Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.
