During our war in Iraq, we often heard about our troops, often referred to as “heroes,” who had died in the war. The total number of our troops who died in Iraq was approximately 4800.
Yesterday I came upon a recent report of the total numbers of Iraqis who died as a result of our invasion. The thoroughly documented and rigorous report by the German affiliate of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, based on several other rigorous and careful reports, concludes that at least 1 million Iraqis died as a result of our invasion and occupation of their country, the majority of them civilian non-combatants! That number does not include deaths among the 3 million who became refugees as a result of the war or the children who face future severe illness and excruciating, untimely death resulting from our use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus in Fallujah and other cities.
Perhaps it was due to my own neglect, but I am furious that I was not aware of these numbers until now. I did a quick Google search and found multiple articles reporting the figure of 1 million deaths, many of which, of course, disputed it as “controversial” and as based on questionable methods. Probably the most important and rigorous study used in the IPPNW report, published in the Lancet by highly regarded scientists at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, concluded that there had been between 390,000 and 900,000 Iraqi war-related deaths by 2006 with the likeliest number being close to 655,000. The figure of 1 million, a conservative estimate, comes from a later study that extrapolates from the 655,000. Both Bush and Blair attacked the Lancet study while the mainstream media mostly either ignored or attacked it, dubbing its methods “controversial.” Yet the same methods were used in compiling casualty figures for the Congo, Angola, the Balkans, and Darfur, figures that were accepted without question and widely reported in the media. Mainstream reporters and editors presumptuously dismissed the numbers compiled by experienced researchers and scientists because those numbers failed to support official accounts. I find their actions highly irresponsible and effectively complicit in the administration’s murderous and illegal war.
There can be no question: the report’s numbers are staggering and shameful! The dead amounted to about 4% of Iraq’s population, the refugees an additional 12%. Equivalent percentages of the US population would number 13 million dead and 39 million fleeing as refugees. Without denigrating the terrible loss of our own troops, I feel compelled to add that those troops were volunteers, that they chose to be members of our armed forces. The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died and the millions who fled their homes made no such choice. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. What better recruiting tool can we imagine for groups like ISIS?
As I mentioned at the outset, we heard much about the deaths of our own troops. How much have we heard or will we hear about Iraqi deaths resulting from our invasion? Will the numbers be on the evening news over the next week? Perhaps the greatest indictment of all is how few of us will even care. What kind of monster have we become?