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Iraq's Shocking Human Toll: About 1 Million Killed, 4.5 Million
Displaced, 1-2 Million Widows, 5 Million Orphans
John Tirman,
The
Nation
Monday, Feb 2, 2009
Now that Bush is gone, perhaps we can honestly
face the damage we have wrought and the responsibilities we
must accept from it.
We are now able to estimate the number of Iraqis
who have died in the war instigated by the Bush administration.
Looking at the empirical evidence of Bush's war legacy will
put his claims of victory in perspective. Of course, even by
his standards -- "stability" -- the jury is out. Most
independent analysts would say it's too soon to judge the political
outcome. Nearly six years after the invasion, the country remains
riven by sectarian politics and major unresolved issues, like
the status of Kirkuk.
We have a better grasp of the human costs of the war. For example,
the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million
displaced Iraqis -- more than half of them refugees -- or about
one in every six citizens. Only 5 percent have chosen to return
to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence
from the high levels of 2005-07. The availability of healthcare,
clean water, functioning schools, jobs and so forth remains
elusive. According to Unicef, many provinces report that less
than 40 percent of households have access to clean water. More
than 40 percent of children in Basra, and more than 70 percent
in Baghdad, cannot attend school.
(Article continues below)
The mortality caused by the war is also high. Several household
surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2007. While there are
differences among them, the range suggests a congruence of estimates.
But none have been conducted for eighteen months, and the two
most reliable surveys were completed in mid-2006. The higher
of those found 650,000 "excess deaths" (mortality
attributable to war); the other yielded 400,000. The war remained
ferocious for twelve to fifteen months after those surveys were
finished and then began to subside. Iraq Body Count, a London
NGO that uses English-language press reports from Iraq to count
civilian deaths, provides a means to update the 2006 estimates.
Full
article here
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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