655,000…(dots)
655,000
…(dots)
By: Dusty Schoch (DW Foreign Policy Editor)
Dear DW reader: If you don’t know what that number represents, you’re part of the problem. That problem, of course, is the previously creeping and now rampant ignorance of a power and propaganda–weakened America turned fascist aggressor by corporate neo-cons who transmogrified the attack on New York’s twin towers into a pre-emptive war of conquest in the Middle East, in the course of which an estimated 655,000 Iraqi citizens have perished.
Who says so? Certainly not the Bush administration or it’s robotic military. Those numbers are neither researched nor reported officially. I suppose the mindset and White House PR protocallers reason that “if we don’t officially count them they don’t exist”. Yeah, sure. Just like when we report the number of American soldiers “killed” in Iraq (about 3,000 “reported”), those other thousands of wounded and maimed who die later when they return home without limbs or viable organs…don’t exist.
Who says the number of killed in Iraq is 655,000? Lancet says. At the end of this article I’ll give you information about and links to this internationally-respected independent global medical reporting organization, but before that I thought I’d take a stab at helping us all try to get a quantitative handle on the realities this number represents in terms of human lives lost. So here goes:
In what follows, I have first given the numbers of Americans
killed in New York and Iraq, and then given that new…
Unbelievable …almost incomprehensible number…655,000.
THEN…
For visual illustration and impact I have painted a picture of all the
Dead…on both “sides” of the Bush war in Iraq (as though–which is not
the case–the events of 9/11 had anything to do with the war in Iraq outside
Bush’s fascist mind and war plan. )
And, since I’m not a skilled artist, in the space the follows, each dead American and Iraqi soul is (God forgive me)
represented and symbolized as a “dot” (i.e. > .)
I had my computer make the dots very small so that I could get 3000 of them on one page, which if you printed it out would pretty much cover a sheet of paper which is about 8 ½ inches wide and about a foot (11 inches) long.
First the figures, and then the dots.
COMPARE THE NUMBERS YOURSELF…
IF YOU DARE TO CONNECT and COMPARE THE DOTS…
ON 9/11/01 bin Laden Killed this many (3000) Americans: (print it out – one time)
Since 9/11/01 Bush has sent this many (3000) American Soldiers to their death in Iraq
(print it out …one more time)
Since 9/11/01 in the “War on Terror” Bush launched in Iraq, Bush (America) has
Caused the deaths of this many Iraqi citizens: 655,000
Print it out 216 times.
Then in one hand hold the single sheet of Americans killed on 9/11 in your right hand, the single sheet of Americans killed in Iraq in your left, and imagine yourself standing on the goal line of a football field.
Now, in your mind’s eye, face the opposing goal and look down the field. To help you compare the numbers of souls lost, God will appear and miraculously take the 216 pages of dead Iraqi dots and lay them at your feet stretching end-to-end down the field.
Look down and out at the line of pages of dots…just like the two you’re holding in you hand, and behold that, when connected, they stretch from your ignorant feet to the 72 yard line of the field before you.
I know you can relate to football fields because you’re an American. That’s why I took you there. You sure as hell can’t relate (or haven’t thus far) to the actual lives we’ve taken over there.
Now, take the time to connect…and compare the sheet of dots…
One (1) sheet for 9/11
One (1) sheet for killed American Soldiers
Two Hundred Sixteen Sheets (216) (about one-inch of typing paper thick when stacked…or all the way to the 72 yard line when laid out end to end) of Iraqis…
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FOOTNOTES:
Lancet reports that 654,965 Iraqis have died as a consequence of the invasion. It is an estimate and the mid-point, and most likely of a range of numbers that could also be correct in the context of their statistical analysis. But even the lowest number in the range – 392,979 – is higher that anyone else has suggested. Of the deaths, 31% were ascribed to the US-led forces. Most deaths were from gunshot wounds (56%), with a further 13% from car bomb injuries and 14% the result of other explosions.
“Since 2004, and especially recently,” writes the Lancet editor, Richard Horton in a commentary, “independent observers have recognized that the security situation in Iraq has deteriorated dramatically.” The new study, he continues, “corroborate the impression that Iraq is descending into bloodthirsty chaos”.
THE LANCET:
The journal was, and remains, independent, without affiliation to a medical or scientific organization. More than 180 years later, The Lancet is an independent and authoritative voice in global medicine. We seek to publish high-quality clinical trials that will alter medical practice; our commitment to international health ensures that research and analysis from all regions of the world is widely covered. Critical appraisal of research and reviews is ensured by strong Comment and Correspondence sections; The Lancet’s opinion and personality is communicated by three editorials every week; fast dissemination of priority issues is delivered by early online publication through thelancet.com; and the continued success of our monthly specialty titles ensures that The Lancet delivers in-depth knowledge in key medical disciplines
http://www.thelancet.com/about
See also (on-line): http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1892888,00.html and
http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=424
