[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Nothing but Fascists[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial] Ali Al-Sarraf, Middle East Online[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Never in modern history has country been forced to pay for its death, torture, and destruction with its own money - its own oil revenues. Iraq has become a country where thieves are entrusted with its richness and where murderous gangs are entrusted with its security, says Ali Al-Sarraf.
March 23, 2007
The war on Iraq was not carried out on the basis of mere strategic interests. No strategies or interests could explain the level of death and destruction that Iraq had undergone ever since the Gulf War in 1991. If one were to assume that the US led invasion in 2003 is a continuation of that war, then Iraq could be said to have suffered more horrors than any country had, including the countries that were involved the WWII.
We are talking about at least two and a half million Iraqi civilians who had met their fate, where 750,000 of them were killed during the last four years. That figure represents 10% of Iraq’s population. In addition, you have over three and a half million Iraqis displaced (two million of them fled outside the country while the other1.5 million lost their homes and became displaced inside their own country). That is 14% of the population.
Even when the Nazis brought destruction to Europe during WWII, no country alone suffered such human losses. Although the Soviet Union at the time, who suffered the biggest number of victims, had lost 20 million lives (military and civilian), that figure represents only 10% of the population which was 197 million in 1941.
The tight sanctions that Iraq had faced for over 12 years were also unprecedented in modern history, affecting such basic needs as food and medicine. The aim of those sanctions was not only to strangle the country’s economy but also to pressure Iraqi society, too. The sanctions, which reduced many segments of the population into poverty, were meant to make the country easier to invade, after creating a public desperation for change. But it has also created internal resentments and divisions between the 'Haves’ and 'Have-nots’, which naturally led to organised crime and armed gang formations.
It was like some sort of a 'social nuclear bomb’. If you accept the findings of Johns Hopkins University team which estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died during the first three years of the US-led invasion, and compare that figure to the number of victims who have died by the Hiroshima bomb, then you could say that Iraq has suffered the effect of four nuclear bombs. Combining all the losses that Iraq has endured ever since 1991 as a direct result of US involvement, one could conclude that Iraqis would have witnessed more mercy had they been besieged and invaded by the Nazis.
Causing such genocide cannot be attributed to perusing interests only. The mass killings in Iraq, like the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, had been met with great indifference from citizens from around the globe (and not just their involved governments). Inaccurate media coverage has helped creating a sense of hatred in some societies against 'the other’.
The Nazis had their own ideology of superiority when they were committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, but the people of Iraq are facing destruction in the name of 'democracy’. After 12 years of sanctions that tore apart Iraq’s society, tight sanctions that even banned pencils from entering the country, causing the death of over one million children due to shortage of food and medicine, the US-led coalition started its war campaign.
But how could the peoples of the invading countries support such immoral bombardments? If you were fighting a 'dictator’ in the name of 'democracy’ then somehow it was made acceptable to endure the needless loss of so many innocent civilians. The cheapness of the blood of 'others’ is nothing new; just remember the millions of Germans calling out Hitler’s name as his forces commit c[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial] Ali Al-Sarraf, Middle East Online[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana,Arial] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Never in modern history has country been forced to pay for its death, torture, and destruction with its own money - its own oil revenues. Iraq has become a country where thieves are entrusted with its richness and where murderous gangs are entrusted with its security, says Ali Al-Sarraf.March 23, 2007
The war on Iraq was not carried out on the basis of mere strategic interests. No strategies or interests could explain the level of death and destruction that Iraq had undergone ever since the Gulf War in 1991. If one were to assume that the US led invasion in 2003 is a continuation of that war, then Iraq could be said to have suffered more horrors than any country had, including the countries that were involved the WWII.
We are talking about at least two and a half million Iraqi civilians who had met their fate, where 750,000 of them were killed during the last four years. That figure represents 10% of Iraq’s population. In addition, you have over three and a half million Iraqis displaced (two million of them fled outside the country while the other1.5 million lost their homes and became displaced inside their own country). That is 14% of the population.
Even when the Nazis brought destruction to Europe during WWII, no country alone suffered such human losses. Although the Soviet Union at the time, who suffered the biggest number of victims, had lost 20 million lives (military and civilian), that figure represents only 10% of the population which was 197 million in 1941.
The tight sanctions that Iraq had faced for over 12 years were also unprecedented in modern history, affecting such basic needs as food and medicine. The aim of those sanctions was not only to strangle the country’s economy but also to pressure Iraqi society, too. The sanctions, which reduced many segments of the population into poverty, were meant to make the country easier to invade, after creating a public desperation for change. But it has also created internal resentments and divisions between the 'Haves’ and 'Have-nots’, which naturally led to organised crime and armed gang formations.
It was like some sort of a 'social nuclear bomb’. If you accept the findings of Johns Hopkins University team which estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died during the first three years of the US-led invasion, and compare that figure to the number of victims who have died by the Hiroshima bomb, then you could say that Iraq has suffered the effect of four nuclear bombs. Combining all the losses that Iraq has endured ever since 1991 as a direct result of US involvement, one could conclude that Iraqis would have witnessed more mercy had they been besieged and invaded by the Nazis.
Causing such genocide cannot be attributed to perusing interests only. The mass killings in Iraq, like the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, had been met with great indifference from citizens from around the globe (and not just their involved governments). Inaccurate media coverage has helped creating a sense of hatred in some societies against 'the other’.
The Nazis had their own ideology of superiority when they were committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, but the people of Iraq are facing destruction in the name of 'democracy’. After 12 years of sanctions that tore apart Iraq’s society, tight sanctions that even banned pencils from entering the country, causing the death of over one million children due to shortage of food and medicine, the US-led coalition started its war campaign.
But how could the peoples of the invading countries support such immoral bombardments? If you were fighting a 'dictator’ in the name of 'democracy’ then somehow it was made acceptable to endure the needless loss of so many innocent civilians. The cheapness of the blood of 'others’ is nothing new; just remember the millions of Germans calling out Hitler’s name as his forces commit c[/FONT]