In 2003, allegedly to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, the US and Coalition forces launched a war to bomb Saddam Hussein into oblivion, topple the Ba’athist regime and instate a new era of “liberty and peace.” By late April, down plonked Saddam’s statues (the man himself remained underground) and tanks rolled into Baghdad flying the US victory flag. Five years, 3 980 US military deaths and in the calculation of Nobel laureate and former World Bank economist, Joseph Stilgitz, $3 trillion later, no WMD have been found, while Iraq overflows with blood and despair.
Even by Iraq Body Count’s conservative estimate, between 81,000 and 89,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the 2003 invasion. The World Health Organisation estimates that from 2003-2006, the US-led Multi-National Forces (MNF) and sectarian fighters have been responsible for the deaths of 151,000 Iraqi civilians. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), approximately 34,452 people were killed in 2006 alone, while the group Just Foreign Policy places the figure of civilian casualties in the last 5 years at a colossal 1 million.
The massive post-invasion death toll in Iraq has left tens of thousands of children orphaned and women widowed. In 2006, studies by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs concluded there were approximately 300,000 widows in Iraq’s capital city alone. In 2007, Iraq’s anti-corruption board estimated there were 5 million orphans in Iraq.
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John McCain will continue this in our name. I can't abide that.
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