This has been the longest season I've been away from writing in my blog. There have been several reasons for my disappearance. The most important is that whenever I felt urged to write about Iraq, about the situation, I felt invaded by a certain hopelessness that can not be described in words and I suspect others and other Iraqis feel also.
is very difficult at the present moment to connect to the Internet and read articles from so-called experts, analysts and politicians. They argue and write about Iraq as I can write about the Ivory Coast or Cambodia, with a detachment and a lack of feeling I guess is what is called being fair. Hearing American politicians is even worse. Ranging between idiots like Bush in a constant and total denial, and opportunists who want to use the war and the subsequent chaos to promote themselves.
The latest horror is the study published in the journal Lancet concluded that 600 000 Iraqis have been killed since the war began. Reading about it left me in a confusion of feelings. On the one hand sounds like a reasonable number, it was not unreasonable. On the other side I wanted the figure was wrong. But ... who to believe? "American politicians or highly reputable scientists using scientifically reliable research techniques?
were typical responses. The war supporters said the number was nonsense because, of course, who want to admit that an action so fervently supported by them has led to the deaths of 600,000 Iraqis (even if they were crazy Iraqis)? Admitting that number is the equivalent of admitting that they have promoted a tsunami or an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale, or the occupation of a developing country by a ruthless superpower ... oh wait, that's what really happened . Is it really so absurd number? Thousands of Iraqis are dying every month, this is undeniable. And, yes, they are dying as a direct result of war and occupation (very few of them and they really have died of happiness (as supporters of the war and Puppets would have you believe).
For American politicians and military personnel the latest tactic seems to be to play dumb and talk of bodies in morgues and official statistics. But as every Iraqi knows, not every death is reported. As for getting reliable figures of the Ministry of Health or any other official Iraqi institution is as likely as getting a grammatically correct sentence from George Bush, especially since the minister was disqualified for providing mortality figures correct. So far the only Iraqis I know that many qualified exorbitant, or are out of touch with Iraqi reality, living abroad and supporting the war, or Iraqis inside that directly benefit from the occupation ($) and likely living in the Green Zone.
The chaos and lack of adequate facilities are the result of people being buried without passing through the reservoir or the hospital. During the U.S. military attack against civilians in cities like Samarra and Fallujah, victims were buried in their gardens or in mass graves in football fields Or have forgotten this already?
literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first-or second grade in the last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car bombs, suicide bombers, American military attacks, military raids of Iraqi forces, death squads, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons, with so many ways to die "is the number so unlikely?
There are Iraqi women who have not removed the clothes of mourning since 2003 because each time we approach the end of the appropriate period of mourning, some other relative dies and the countdown begins again.
pretend that the figure of 600,000 is totally wrong and that the minimum is the correct number close to 400,000 Is that better? Before the war the Bush administration Saddam was claiming that 300 000 Iraqis killed in about 24 years. After this latest report published by the Lancet. 300,000 seems quite modest and tame. Congratulations Bush and company.
Everyone knows that the "official figures" of Iraqis dead or dying as a direct result of war and occupation are far from reality (yes, even you, war hawks, in the depths of your tiny heart). This latest report is probably closer to the truth than anything that has been published so far. And what about the American deaths? When will someone study on the actual number of these? If the Bush administration is lying so vehemently about the number of Iraqi dead, one can only imagine the extent of lying about dead Americans.
- posted by river @ 11:35 PM
