The under-5 infant mortality steadily declined in the post-1950 era but after Western intervention with sanctions in mid-1990 (and thence war, continued sanctions, invasion and occupation) there was a dramatic and sustained increase in infant mortality. A similar disaster is evident from estimates of avoidable mortality (excess mortality), the difference between the ACTUAL mortality and deaths EXPECTED in a peaceful country with the same demographics. Thus the avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality for Iraq have been 5.2 million and 3.6 million, respectively (1950-2005), 1.7 million and 1.2 million, respectively (1991-2005), and 0.4 million and 0.3 million, respectively (post-invasion) [4].
According to the latest United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) report (2005) [5], in 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was 110,000 in Iraq as compared to 1,000 in the invading and occupying US Coalition country, Australia (noting that in 2003 these countries had populations of about 25 and 20 million, respectively). This horrendous mortality arises because annual per capita medical expenditure in Occupied Iraq is only about 0.5% of that in metropolitan USA, giving rise to the description of "passive genocide" [6].
The average annual death rate of Western civilians from jihadist violence has been 0.00003 per 100 (for the last 20 years) and 0.0001 per 100 (over the last 5 years). As outlined in the WTI report, the 9/11 atrocity (3,000 victims) was dishonestly used as the excuse for a pre-planned invasion of Iraq [1] and for an envisaged "endless" "War on Terror". In contrast, the annual death rate of under-5 year old infants is an appalling 2.6 per 100 in US-occupied Iraq due to gross Coalition violation of the Geneva Conventions for protection of civilians - terror indeed for the parents. The average annual death rate of Australian POWs under the Japanese in World War 2 was 10.4 per 100 [7] and atrocities such as this were the basis of application of the post-war Nuremberg Principles to the prosecution of Japanese war criminals such as Prime Minister Tojo and General Yamashita (who were both subsequently found guilty and hanged). The WTI report is quite correct in charging the UK and US governments with war crimes and recommending formal investigation for prosecution.
The challenge for humanity
Unfortunately, as pointed out by the WTI report [1], corporate mainstream media lying permitted the invasion and occupation of Iraq - and continued, egregious media dishonesty means that the horrendous human consequences in Iraq as outlined above are simply not reported. Arundhati Roy, the outstanding spokesperson for the Jury of Conscience, very succinctly described the fundamental phenomenon exploited by the evil and confounding the good: “the ultimate privilege of the elite is not just their deluxe lifestyles, but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience” [8].
The challenge for decent World citizens is to defeat the criminal lying of corporate mainstream media. The WTI report recommends that a "process of accountability is initiated to hold those morally and personally responsible for their participation in this illegal war, such as journalists who deliberately lied, corporate media outlets that promoted racial, ethnic and religious hatred, and CEOs of multinational corporations that profited from this war" [1]. Decent people in the Western democracies should have zero tolerance for the scarily comprehensive, current political and media dishonesty.
What has happened to Iraq is symptomatic of entrenched lying by commission and omission in the world's oldest democracies. Indeed the Achille's heel of democracy - oligarchic and corporate control of information flow, votes and public policy - has been powerfully exposed by media non-reportage of the horrendous consequences of the continuing occupation and media acceptance of the profundly dishonest "War on Terror". Solutions to the huge problems facing the world will require public commitment to truth, reason, effective free speech and rational, scientific analysis. Alternative, non-corporate media and corporate-independent political movements for public responsibility and global good are the way ahead. The Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq has helped to light the way.
[3] UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs, Population Division, "World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision Population Database" (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1 )
Commentary 
