Victims of our liberation
An independent study has concluded that at least approximately 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the American invasion of March 2003. As the Guardian reports:
Nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the two years since the invasion, and four times as many died at the hands of US-led forces as from suicide bombers and other insurgents, according to a detailed study of the human cost of the conflict.
Where are the front-page news items on this one? Got to love the way the media and governments work the population into frenzy over the potential for violence committed by Muslim extremists against Westerners. Even before the London attack, for example, the British Government was telling its population to be prepared for possible terrorist attacks. After all, we are told, the terrorists aim to destroy our way of life irrespective of our actions. Yet our governments (the US, UK and Australia et al) remain totally silent in relation to the (many more) deaths our forces are responsible for.
The Guardian notes that this most recent assessment is much lower than the 100,000 casualty calculation by the Lancet Study. It’s worth remembering that the present study was calculated based on deaths which could be verified by at least two separate sources. In other words, it’s likely the 25,000 estimate is low because it does not include unreported deaths. Given that the US has free reign over the skies of Iraq and the high collateral casualty rate caused by aerial bombardment, might I suggest that there is (still) more to the Iraqi fatalities issue than meets the eye?
posted by Iqbal Khaldun @ 3:43 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
whether you agree or disagree with the war on Iraq, what I don't get is the double standards on people killed.
The Islam apologists cite the deaths of civilians in the Iraq war - fair enough - but they would NEVER draw attention to the fact that Saddam wiped out tens of thousands of Iraqs. In ONE single chemical attack alone he wiped out 5,000 kurds.
Then there was the Iraq-Iran war. 1 million dead! Muslims and Muslim apologists in the West never shot off about this. Lips sealed tight
So Why?
because it's NOT about deaths. It's about polictics and Islam. It IS perfectly ok for Muslims to kill Muslims or infidels, but wrong for infidels to kill Muslims.
Double standards or what?!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know where that argument comes from because it’s simply not true. I can’t think of a simple Muslim that was ever a fan of Saddam. Indeed, many Muslims fled Iraq because of him. In Australia, where I live, many Muslims (and others) set up support services for Muslims (and non-Muslims) fleeing Saddam’s Iraq, Iran and other Middle Eastern nations despite the fact that Australian migration laws made it very difficult for people to seek asylum.
As for staying silent on Saddam, where was the West’s condemnation during the 1980s when he was a key ally? You must know that he was a key Western ally during the height of his atrocities. In fact, his weapons were supplied by the West, particularly the US. Interestingly, in that cat and mouse period prior to the March 2003 invasion, when the US through the UN compelled Iraq to prove it had disarmed itself, the Iraq Government provided a 16,000 page dossier of their WMDs and WMD-related materials. The document principally listed American and European (some Russian and Chinese) corporations. Before it reached the UN in New York, the United States government censored those pages of the dossier which listed American business. We only know about this because it was reported in a British newspaper. Even then, the story was fairly quickly marginalized.
As for the Iran-Iraq war, who was supplying the weapons? Principally the US and Europe (again, along with Russia and China, but to a lesser extent). SCUD missiles don’t grow on trees. They require years and billions of dollars of research. Resources only powerful nations have the luxury to provide.
Now apart from the above, I think you do raise one good point. I think Muslims, like most groups, often avoid serious analysis of the social situation in their own countries or communities. For example, in Pakistan minorities generally have a horrid time. But you rarely see Pakistani expatriates speak out against it (although some do, for example check this excellent organisation: http://www.hrcp-web.org/). A family friend once tried to convince me that (Muslim) Indonesia’s oppressive occupation of (Muslim) Aceh was in fact a fabrication perpetrated by Zionists to spread disunity amongst Muslims.
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