U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq
By Peter Phillips
The United States is directly responsible for over one million Iraqi
deaths since the invasion five and half years ago. In a January 2008
report, a British polling group Opinion Research Business (ORB)
reports that, survey work confirms our earlier estimate that over
1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which
started in 2003
. We now estimate that the death toll between March
2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of
1,033,000. If one takes into account the margin of error associated
with survey data of this nature then the estimated range is between
946,000 and 1,120,000.
The ORB report comes on the heels of two earlier studies
conducted by Johns Hopkins University published in the Lancet medical
journal that confirmed the continuing numbers of mass deaths in
Iraq. A study done by Dr. Les Roberts from January 1, 2002 to March
18 2003 put the civilian deaths at that time at over 100,000. A
second study published in the Lancet in October 2006 documented over
650,000 civilian deaths in Iraq since the start of the US invasion.
The 2006 study confirms that US aerial bombing in civilian
neighborhoods caused over a third of these deaths and that over half
the deaths are directly attributable to US forces.
The now estimated 1.2 million dead, as of July 2008, includes
children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, cab drivers,
clerics, schoolteachers, factory workers, policemen, poets,
healthcare workers, day care providers, construction workers,
babysitters, musicians, bakers, restaurant workers and many more. All
manner of ordinary people in Iraq have died because the United States
decided to invade their country. These are deaths in excess of the
normal civilian death rate under the prior government.
The magnitude of these deaths is undeniable. The continuing
occupation by US forces guarantees a mass death rate in excess of
10,000 people per month with half that number dying at the hands of
US forces a carnage so severe and so concentrated at to equate it
with the most heinous mass killings in world history. This act has
not gone unnoticed.
Recently, Dennis Kucinich introduced a single impeachment article
against George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people
about the reasons for invading Iraq. On July 15 The House forwarded
the resolution to the Judiciary Committee with a 238 to 180 vote.
That Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction and Iraqs threat to
the US is now beyond doubt. Former US federal prosecutor Elizabeth De
La Vega documents the lies most thoroughly in her book U.S. Vs Bush,
and numerous other researchers have verified Bushs untrue statements.
The American people are faced with a serious moral dilemma. Murder
and war crimes have been conducted in our name. We have allowed the
war/occupation to continue in Iraq and offered ourselves little
choice within the top two presidential candidates for immediate
cessation of the mass killings. McCain would undoubtedly accept the
deaths of another million Iraqi civilians in order to save face for
America, and Obamas 18-month timetable for withdrawal would likely
result in another 250,000 civilian deaths or more.
We owe our children and ourselves a future without the shame of mass
murder on our collective conscience. The only resolution of this
dilemma is the immediate withdrawal of all US troops in Iraq and the
prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible. Anything less
creates a permanent original sin on the soul of the nation for that
we will forever suffer.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University
and director of Project Censored a media research group. He is the
co-editor with Dennnis Loo of the book Impeach the President: The
Case Against Bush and Cheney.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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