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One million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths  | | by Ben Heine / MWC NEWS |
20 MARCH 2007 marks the Fourth Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Here in Melbourne, Australia, as we did 4 years ago, we will prepare our placards, take the train to the heart of this great City and join hundreds of thousands across the country demonstrating against this evil carnage. Four years after the invasion the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) in Occupied Iraq now total 1 MILLION.
Since the invasion of Iraq 4 years ago I have been researching, writing and informing people about the horrendous human cost – the appalling death toll that has steadily and remorselessly climbed over these 4 awful years. I began writing for the highly ethical and humanitarian magazine MWC News in mid-2005. This is what I wrote in my first article published on MWC News on 4 July 2005 in which I estimated post-invasion Iraqi “avoidable mortality” (excess deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) and post-invasion Iraqi “under-5 infant mortality” (under-5 year old infant deaths) using authoritative UN Population Division demographic data (see MWC News ), “Thus the avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality have been 1.3 million and 0.9 million, respectively (for the Gulf War & Sanctions War against Iraq, 1991-2003), 6.5 million and 4.9 million (US-backed civil war and war against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, 1979-2001), 1.5 million and 1.2 million (US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, 2001-2005) and 0.4 million and 0.3 million (US invasion and occupation of Iraq, 2003-2005). About 90% of under-5 infant deaths in war-ravaged Iraq and Afghanistan have been avoidable.” Now in March 2007 the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total 1 million. We must continue to inform a Western world that still continues to look the other way. Below is a letter that I am sending to media world wide on the occasion of the Fourth Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and to also mark this horrendous milestone of 1 million post-invasion Iraqi excess deaths. Dear Sir/Madam, Four years after the illegal US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, how many Iraqis have died post-invasion? Post-invasion Occupied Iraqi excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total ONE MILLION as of March 2007, after 4 years of war and as estimated from data from the top US medical epidemiology group in the World’s top Public Health School (the Nobel Laureate-containing Bloomberg School of Public Health) at the top US Johns Hopkins University, published peer-reviewed in the top UK medical journal The Lancet and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts. Consonant with post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories totalling 1.0 million and 2.4 million, respectively, the post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths total 0.5 million and 1.9 million, respectively; the number of refugees total 3.8 million and 3.8 million, respectively; and, according to WHO, the annual per capita medical expenditures permitted by the Occupiers are $64 and $23, respectively, as compared to $2,874 (Australia), $2,389 (UK) and $5,711 (US). The accrual cost (i.e. the long-term committed cost) of the Bush Iraq and Afghan Wars is now $2.5 TRILLION, this estimate coming from 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate and former Chief Economist of the World Bank US Professor Stiglitz (Columbia) and Professor Linda Bilmes (Harvard), who also estimate a cost of $6.5 million for each US soldier killed. Assuming the “all men are created equal” this leads to a Reparations Bill of $ 6.5 million x 3.4 million = $22 trillion. These horrendous outcomes indicate gross violation by the US Alliance of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (notably Articles 38, 55 and 56), UN Genocide Convention (specifically Article 2) as well as of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the Child Convention. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We are inescapably obliged to inform everyone about horrendous abuses of humanity. Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya
Melbourne, Australia  Dr Gideon Polya, MWC News Chief political editor, 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), and is currently writing a book on global mortality --- Other articles by this author Recommend this article...
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money seems to be all that most think of...I dont care what was spent on this war I care about the inocent getting killed every day... Spend more time in trying to find out how to save the inocent rather than how much it costs... If you cant think to help the inocent then why worry about how much it cost for a war or the after facts of a war...Put your mouth where your money is and put it to more use by telling others to help the inocent and take your wallet out and give money to the inocent people that get hurt in these wars.... 
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