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'Continuing Collateral
Damage: Comment by Larry Ross, December 20, 2003
The
illegal, unjustified Iraq war based on many lies, and launched without
provocation by President Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Australian
Prime Minister John Howard, has resulted in over 20,000 casualties
according to MEDACT (See below) Many more casualties will follow due
to the long term effects (4.5 billion years)
of depleted uranium weapons (see
D.U. Weapons on this web site) This unprecedented
aggressive war action by
Bush, Blair, Howard, and to a lesser extent other allies of this coalition,
makes them war criminals as defined under international law. Most
people are
pleased that the monster who ruled Iraq, Sadam Hussein, has been captured
and will be put on trial by Iraq. However this should not obscure
the casualties
and destruction caused by the unprovoked and unjustified war.
Unfortunatlely the main culprits may be too powerful to stand trial before an international court for their crimes. If there was any justice in this world, they, and their countries would have to pay billions in compensation to the victims and Iraq, as well accept the punishment decided by the court. A
good comparison with this crime is the prosecution of World War II Nazi
criminals
for their aggressive war.
(Ref: Radio New Zealand program on the Nuremberg War Trials 7.00 p.m December 17, 2003)
'Collateral Damage' damning new report From Peace Movement Aotearoa,
November 12, 2003
Kia ora,
The new report from MEDACT 'Continuing Collateral Damage: The Health
and Environmental
Costs of War on Iraq 2003' is now available. Released overnight
in the northern hemisphere, it documents the 'collateral damage'
between
March and October of this year.
"The war on Iraq and its aftermath have exacted a heavy toll of death
and injury on combatants and non-combatants, according to an international
report released
today. 'Continuing Collateral Damage: The Health
and Environmental Costs of War on Iraq 2003' concludes that between
21,700 and
55,000 people have died since the US/UK-led invasion, with the number
of killed and injured continuing to rise.
Among the dead, the report estimates 7,800 and 9,600 Iraqi civilians.
The number
of injured civilians is estimated at 20,000. The report was drafted
by Medact,
the London-based affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which organized the global release in 12
other countries.
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), IPPNW's US affiliate, joined
in the
release.
The report also documents the deterioration in the general state of
health of the Iraqi people since the war. Health in Iraq, especially
among children, was of grave international concern before the war started,
with one in eight children dying before their fifth birthday and a quarter
of babies
born underweight. The impact of the 2003 war compounded this poor state
of health, afflicting people who were already weakened.
Vulnerable groups, including women and children especially, have suffered
from the breakdown
in law and order, lack of security, and damage to infrastructure.
Beleaguered Iraqi health services are unable to cope with the
health crisis. For every Ali Abbas, the severely injured and orphaned
boy now undergoing
intensive treatment in the UK, there are thousands of maimed
children with no safe access to adequate health services, let alone
sophisticated
rehabilitation.
"Limited access to clean water and sanitation, poverty, malnutrition,
and disruption
of public services including health services continue to have a negative
impact on the health of the Iraqi people," said the report's author
Dr. Sabya Farooq.
Poor health is further jeopardized by the extensive war-related contamination
of land, rivers, and atmosphere. "The health and
environmental consequences of the war will be felt for many years to
come," said
Medact President
and international public health expert Dr. June Crown, who chaired
the UK press conference at the British Medical Association.
Commenting from New York, IPPNW/PSR spokesperson, Dr. Victor Sidel of
the Montefiore
Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an advisor
on the report, said, "This authoritative report, based on exhaustive
efforts to ascertain data on the death, disability, and damage caused
by the attack on Iraq, documents the health, environmental and societal
consequences of waging an ill-advised and illegal war using ferociously
destructive modern weaponry. The United States and the United Kingdom
must not only protect the health of the Iraqi people by providing massive
help in the reconstruction of the infrastructure the attackers
have destroyed, but must also make certain that future US and British policies prevent 'pre-emptive wars.'"" [Extract from advance media release] 'Continuing Collateral Damage: The Health and Environmental Costs of War on Iraq 2003' is available at http://www.medact.org/tbx/pages/sub.cfm?id=775
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