By Gideon Polya
02 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org
A bottom-line measure of the consequences of human actions is provided by excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened, excess mortality, avoidable mortality). Excess deaths can be VIOLENCE-related (from bombs and bullets) or NON-VIOLENT (due to deprivation). For a detailed analysis of excess deaths from violence and deprivation see “Global avoidable mortality”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/and “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ ).
Authoritative estimates of violent and non-violent Iraqi excess deaths now show that the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total 2.0 million (see: http://open.newmatilda.com/crosswire/ ), the 1990-1990 Gulf War violent deaths totalled 0.2 million (see: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_Iraqis_died_in_the_Gulf_War ), and the 1990-2003 Sanctions War was associated with 1.7 million excess deaths. The total 1990-2007 excess deaths in Iraq now (September 2007) total 3.9 MILLION (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17066/42/ ).
The post-invasion NON-VIOLENT deaths in Iraq (now 0.7-0.8 million) are being caused by grievous deprivation by the US Coalition Occupiers in gross violation of the Geneva Convention (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ). The post-invasion VIOLENT deaths (0.8-1.2 million) are being caused by violence from Occupiers, failure of Occupier security, Indigenous fighters and their confrères, from directly or indirectly US-funded sectarian militias, Government militias and death squads and by US mercenaries.
This is what Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War actually says ) (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ), QUOTE:
Article 55
To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56
To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory. END QUOTE.
Yet if you consult the World Health Organization (WHO) you discover that the “total annual per capita medical expenditure” permitted in Occupied Iraq by the US Coalition is $135 (2004) as compared to $2,560 (UK), $3,123 (Australia) and $6,096 (the US) (see WHO: http://www.who.int/countries/en/ ) – and as compared to a truly Auschwitz-style, genocidal $19 in UK-US-Australia-occupied Afghanistan (post-invasion excess deaths 2.5 million and post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 2.0 million: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16802/42/ ).
The US Alliance Occupier countries are involved in both active genocide and passive genocide in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories - see the recently published “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (editor. Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney 2007: http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an42083982 and especially “Australian Complicity in Iraq Mass Mortality”, also web-published: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ).
The NON-VIOLENT post-invasion excess death estimate of 0.7 million is from UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) and the 0.8 million estimate is from UNICEF data: (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) and employing the estimate that for impoverished Third World countries the under-5 infants deaths are approximately 0.7 of the total excess deaths) (see “Layperson’s Guide to Counting Iraq Deaths”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/ ).
The VIOLENT post-invasion excess death estimate of 1.2 million is from the recent report from the expert UK ORB (Opinion Research Business) polling organization (see: http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78 ; reported by the Los Angeles Times, the UK Guardian and Observer and even buried (with gross minimization) by the irresponsible BBC but as reported by Wikipedia - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
ORB_survey_of_casualties_of_the_Iraq_War - overwhelmingly IGNORED by Mainstream media) and the 0.8 million estimate comes from top US Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University medical epidemiologists published in the top medical journal The Lancet, 2006 (see: see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190907.htm ).
TOTAL post invasion excess deaths of 2.0 million + Gulf War violent deaths of 0.2 million + Sanctions War excess deaths of 1.7 million = 3.9 million post-1990 excess deaths, an horrendous total commensurate with those of the Jewish Holocaust, the WW2 Nazi German-inflicted Jewish Genocide (5-6 million deaths) and of the largely UN-REPORTED, “forgotten”, man-made, British-inflicted Bengali Holocaust (Bengal Famine, Bengali Genocide) of WW2 British India (4 million deaths) (see “The Forgotten Holocaust – the 1943/44 Bengal Famine”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2005/07/forgotten-holocaust-194344-bengal.html and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ).
Undoubtedly what is happening in Iraq is a continuing 2-decade HOLOCAUST (i.e. involves a huge number of deaths).
According to the UN Genocide Convention, Article II, QUOTE: “Article II. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with INTENT [my emphasis] to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ).
The American phase of the Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide has been going on INTENTIONALLY since 1990; the British involvement has been ongoing off and on since 1914 (see my book "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950": http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).
The Iraqis are SEMITES from the heartland of SEMITIC culture dating back about 7,000 years.
While (contrary to lying Mainstream media reports) Iran's President Ahmadinejad does NOT deny the Holocaust (he merely wants more scholarly research) (see what he ACTUALLY says in his own words: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/16983/42/ ), the racist Bush-ite- and Racist Zionist-beholden, racist, lying, Iraqi Holocaust-ignoring, Iraqi Genocide-denying Anglo-American Mainstream media are almost COMPREHENSIVELY involved in sustained, INTENTIONAL, anti-Semitic Holocaust Denial over the continuing ACTUALITY of the Iraqi Holocaust, the Iraqi Genocide in which most of the victims are Women and Children.
Anti-Semitic Denial of the Jewish Holocaust attracts a 10 year prison term in Austria and lengthy custodial sentences elsewhere in Western Europe. Indeed the Germans are proposing that the EU criminalize denial of all contemporary holocausts and genocides (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/10528/42/ ). Would YOU buy goods or services from Nazis or Holocaust Deniers?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity, inaction kills and inaction is complicity. Comprehensive, personal and collective, International and Intra-national Sanctions and Boycotts against the largely Anglo-American, Bush-ite, anti-Semitic mass murderers, Holocaust Committers and Holocaust Deniers are URGENTLY required until the killing stops, the victims are recompensed and the perpetrators arraigned, tried and punished in war crimes trials before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ ).
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