Saturday, October 23, 2010

Iraq

But it was systematic sectarian cleansing that drove the killing to its most frenzied point, making December 2006 the worst month of the war, according to the reports, with about 3,800 civilians killed, roughly equal to the past seven years of murders in New York City. A total of about 1,300 police officers, insurgents and coalition soldiers were also killed in that month.

The documents also reveal many previously unreported instances in which American soldiers killed civilians — at checkpoints, from helicopters, in operations. Such killings are a central reason Iraqis turned against the American presence in their country, a situation that is now being repeated in Afghanistan...
The archive tells thousands of individual stories of loss whose consequences are still being felt in Iraqi families today. (NYT)
I just don't know what else to say at this point. Bogus invasion genocidal catalyzing civil war; 100,000+ civilian deaths; over 4000 US deaths; massive infrastructural destruction; a cost estimated to be in the range of $2.4-3 trillion+ to the US alone; and Iran ends up gifted a victory by the US in the end, if "victory" even makes any sense....

And note this lovely item at the end of the linked article:
Civilians have borne the brunt of modern warfare, with 10 civilians dying for every soldier in wars fought since the mid-20th century, compared with 9 soldiers killed for every civilian in World War I, according to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Smart bombs and counterinsurgency, my ass. I'd stress that these people are incompetent if it were possible to look past the basic evil of such a drastic rise in the deaths of non-combatants.

1 comment:

MT said...

Hey, and if you're still not completely satisfied, go ahead and keep the paring knife set for free as our gift just for trying Operation Iraqi Liberation.