Mass murder of Afghan women & children

International Laws exist to preserve the happiness, safety and lives of everyone on the Planet. Those who step outside the Law are criminals. Those who step outside International Law and in doing so kill huge numbers of innocent people must unequivocally be described as mass murderers and Americans who do so are subject to the death penalty under US Federal Law.

MWC News Editor Shahram Vahdany alerted me to the latest estimates of  horrendous Maternal Mortality in US-occupied Afghanistan (see MWC News ) and I have responded to this horrifying report with the following carefully documented analysis. Based on the latest UNICEF data (unlike in Orwell’s “1984”, 2 plus 2 still equals 4 in much of the World) Bush Amerika has been involved for over 5 years in the mass murder of 145,000 Afghan women perinatally, 1.4 million Afghan females in total and 2.0 million under-5 year old Afghan infants as documented below in relation to (a) UNICEF demographic and mortality data and (b) International Law and moral culpability.
UNICEF demographic & mortality data for Afghanistan

The following data derives from the latest UNICEF figures for Afghanistan:

Annual births (2005): 1,441,000;

Annual under-5 infant deaths (2005):  370,000;

Population (2005):  29,863,000;

Population under-5 (2005):  5,535,000;

Annual under-5 death rate 6.68%;

Under-5 infant deaths over 5.3 years of occupation: 1, 961,000 i.e. 2.0 million;

Avoidable under-5 infant deaths: 90% of 1.96 million = 1.8 million.

The Maternal Mortality Ratio is the annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births. The “Reported” column figures from UNICEF show country Reported figures that are not adjusted for underreporting and misclassification; the Adjusted Maternal Mortality Ratio values are adjusted for such underreporting and misclassification:

Reported Maternal Mortality Ratio (2000): 1,600 per 100,000 live births;

Adjusted Maternal Mortality Ratio (2000): 1,900 per 100,000 live births;

Annual Maternal Deaths: 1,600 x 1,441,000/100,000 = 23,056

Adjusted Maternal Deaths: 1,900 x 1,441,000/100,000 = 27,379

A Maternal Mortality rate of 27,379/year means 75/day or  3.1/hour.

An under-5 infant death rate of 370,000/year means  1014/day or 42 per hour or nearly one infant dying every  minute.

From a detailed 2 year analysis of UN Population Division demographic data for all countries in the World since 1950 it has been estimated that for impoverished and devastated Third World countries like Occupied Afghanistan  the “under-5 infant deaths” are about 0.7 of the “total excess deaths” (excess deaths being avoidable deaths or deaths that should not have happened) (See Layperson’s Guide to Counting Iraq Deaths, MWC News ). Accordingly using the above figures we can estimate:

Post-invasion  under-5 infant deaths: 370,000/year x 5.3 years = 1.96 million;

Post-invasion excess deaths: 1.96 million/0.7 = 2.8 million;

Post-invasion excess female deaths (assuming 1:1 sex ratio): 1.4 million.

Ultimately non-violent avoidable death derives from lack of life-sustaining requisites – shelter, food, potable water, medicine and medical care. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides the following estimates of  Total Annual Health Expenditure Per Capita (2003) (in international dollars):  $23 for Occupied Afghanistan as compared to $2,874 (Australia), $2,389 (UK),  $5,711 (US).

International Law & moral culpability

Australian bioethicist and philosopher Professor Peter Singer (the De Camp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University's Center for Human Values) is widely acclaimed as the world’s most influential philosopher (he essentially initiated the modern animal rights movement with the publication of his book “Animal Liberation” in 1975). He is also one of the World’s foremost bioethicists. Before considering International Law and the responsibility of the Occupiers of Occupied Afghanistan for their Conquered Subjects, let us consider what Professor Singer says about “active killing” and “passive killing” (his example in the following quotation being the “active euthanasia” of severely disabled infants by doctors as compared to “passive euthanasia” through withholding life-sustaining requisites) (see: Kuhse, H. & Singer, P. (1985), Should the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants (Oxford University Press, Oxford):

“Doctors who deliberately leave a baby to die when they have the awareness, the ability, and the opportunity to save the baby’s life, are just as morally responsible for the death as they would be if they had brought it about by a deliberate , positive action.”