A Million Deaths in Iraq

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Today, I received a shocking email from the respected Doctor Gideon Polya regarding the death toll in Iraq as of March 2007. Before I publish the contents of that email, here is a brief introduction to the venerated doctor.

Dr Gideon Polya has published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently editing a completed book on global avoidable mortality (numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for “Gideon Polya” and on his websites: Global Avoidable Mortality, News Vine and MWC News. As a radical alternative to dispassionate scientific analysis on behalf of humanity, he has painted some huge paintings demanding respect for Woman and Mother and Child: Sydney Madonna, Manhattan Madonna ,Truelove and Qana.

And here is his email. Please spread far and wide as requested.


Dear Anwaar,

Below is a carefully researched and documented letter being sent to global media on the occasion of the 4 th anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq and about post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq that now total 1 million. Please inform everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Polya
Dear Sir/Madam,

Four years after the illegal US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq, how many Iraqis have died post-invasion?

Post-invasion Occupied Iraqi excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total ONE MILLION as of March 2007, after 4 years of war and as estimated from data from the top US medical epidemiology group in the World’s top Public Health School (the Nobel Laureate-containing Bloomberg School of Public Health) at the top US Johns Hopkins University, published peer-reviewed in the top UK medical journal The Lancet and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts. [1-3]

Consonant with post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories totalling 1.0 million and 2.4 million, respectively, the post-invasion under-5 year old infant deaths total 0.5 million and 1.9 million, respectively; the number of refugees total 3.8 million and 3.8 million, respectively; and, according to WHO, the annual per capita medical expenditures permitted by the Occupiers are $64 and $23, respectively, as compared to $2,874 (Australia), $2,389 (UK) and $5,711 (US). [4-10]

The accrual cost (i.e. the long-term committed cost) of the Bush Iraq and Afghan Wars is now $2.5 TRILLION, this estimate coming from 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate and former Chief Economist of the World Bank US Professor Stiglitz (Columbia) and Professor Linda Bilmes (Harvard), who also estimate a cost of $6.5 million for each US soldier killed. Assuming the “all men are created equal” this leads to a Reparations Bill of $ 6.5 million x 3.4 million = $22 trillion. [11 -12]

These horrendous outcomes indicate gross violation by the US Alliance of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (notably Articles 38, 55 and 56), UN Genocide Convention (specifically Article 2) as well as of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the Child Convention. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We are inescapably obliged to inform everyone about horrendous abuses of humanity. [13-16]

Yours sincerely,

Dr Gideon Polya

Melbourne, Australia

.

.

Key references:

[1] http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf

[2] The Iraq deaths study was valid and correct

[3] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12904/42/

[4] http://esa.un.org/unpp/

[5] http://www.unicef.org/index.php

[6] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1986147,00.html

[7] http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/country?iso=afg

[8] http://www.who.int/en/

[9] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11968/42/

[10] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12741/42/

[11] http://www.newstatesman.com/200703120024

[12] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13099/42/

[13] http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y4gcpcp.htm

[14] http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm

[15] http://gpolya.newsvine.com/

[16] http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/



Comments

6 Responses to “A Million Deaths in Iraq”

  1. Michelle on March 18th, 2007 11:02 am

    Thank you for this information, Anwaar. Tomorrow, my son and I are attending one of the many vigils to commemorate the 4-year anniversary of the Iraq war. Hopefully, my son will convince some of his young friends to attend the vigil with us. So many we’ve attended lack a strong showing of our youth….it is up to their parents to participate and educate their children on the horrors of war.
    We will be standing with Physicians For Humanity, a group I have been involved with since I was a child, when my aunt would take us children to her peace group meetings. Mt son will be the third generation of my family to stand in solidarity with this group and our global community. I feel it is very important to engage our youth in such activities as it is truly their world and we must guide them in becoming concerned and caring individuals of action and participation.
    Regards,
    Michelle

  2. RG Gregory on March 18th, 2007 11:07 am

    There seems to me there exists a longterm desire (maybe subliminal) to destroy Mesopotamia, the cradle of Western civilisation - and maybe of Eastern too - and replace it with a world that only thinks as far back as the coming into being of the United States. The deaths-figure reported here, the logic of which I totally accept, shows there is no limit to the atavistic intentions of the forces that now have their grip on America and its empire.

  3. CathyGarger on March 18th, 2007 2:43 pm

    Being Held Accountable For Our “Inactivity”

    Sometimes there are few words to be uttered when one is experiencing a profound state of shock and horror. At that very moment it suddenly dawns on a non-psychopath that to merely feel or say we are against these heinous bloody wars of aggression is simply not enough.

    The two articles below are a veritable test of Psychopathology. I defy any person to read these two pieces in their entirety and *not* feel something.

    And if we “pass” this makeshift mental health test and subsequently become angry, scream out, moan a guttural sound, and/or cry? We then must -each and every one of us - somehow, some way find the strength - and courage - that exists deep within us to do *whatever it takes* to stop what has, in all actuality, the truly unmistakable markings of certain insanity.

    Such cruel and inhumane barbary is atypical of humans who are not psychopaths. So each of us must answer the question that GW Bush put to us in November, 2001:

    “Over time it’s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity,” he said. “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”
    http://archives.cnn.com/2001/U.....on.terror/

    Indeed, after reading the two articles below, all who possess an actual conscience must ask ourselves, are we - or are we not - going to be held accountable for our “inactivity”?

    In the words of James Freeman Clarke, “Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.”

    Let us each not fall into the huge propaganda trap of fear. We must boldly resist the campaign of domestic terror being waged upon good American citizens of conscience who boldly resist the aims of imperialist, genocidal bellicosity at the hands of its federal leadership… Republican and Democrat alike.

    Cathy Garger
    www.mytown.ca/garger

    A Million Deaths in Iraq

    Consonant with post-invasion excess deaths in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories totalling 1.0 million and 2.4 million

    http://truthspring.info/2007/0.....s-in-iraq/

    Happy Anniversary, Free Iraq!

    This 4th anniversary of Iraq’s occupation, as American citizens tuck their well fed children into warm beds after affectionate hugs, we will recall that the rate of birth defects, leukemia and cancer among Iraqi children under the age of 15 in those districts where the use of DU had been the most concentrated is increasing horrendously and, if not checked soon enough, a generation of beautiful babies are going to turn into one of hideous cripples.
    http://truthspring.info/2007/0.....free-iraq/

  4. The Digest » 3/19 Blaming the Victims: Covering Up Terrorism in Iraq; Resistance Defends Humanity; “Peace” Activism as Collusion: Using Rachel Corrie Against Palestinian Liberation; “I Killed Jesus!” on March 20th, 2007 8:42 am

    […] Million Deaths in Iraq March 18, 2007 Anwaar Hussain http://truthspring.info/2007/0.....s-in-iraq/ Today, I received a shocking email from the respected Doctor Gideon Polya regarding the death toll […]

  5. Anwaar on March 29th, 2007 5:08 pm

    03/28/07 “The Guardian” — - -Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week the BBC reported that the government’s own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable, following a freedom of information request by the reporter Owen Bennett-Jones. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American and British led invasion in March 2003.

    Immediately after publication, the prime minister’s official spokesman said that the Lancet’s study “was not one we believe to be anywhere near accurate”. The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said that the Lancet figures were “extrapolated” and a “leap”. President Bush said: “I don’t consider it a credible report”.
    Scientists at the UK’s Department for International Development thought differently. They concluded that the study’s methods were “tried and tested”. Indeed, the Johns Hopkins approach would likely lead to an “underestimation of mortality”.

    The Ministry of Defence’s chief scientific adviser said the research was “robust”, close to “best practice”, and “balanced”. He recommended “caution in publicly criticising the study”.

    When these recommendations went to the prime minister’s advisers, they were horrified. One person briefing Tony Blair wrote: “Are we really sure that the report is likely to be right? That is certainly what the brief implies?” A Foreign and Commonwealth Office official was forced to conclude that the government “should not be rubbishing the Lancet”.

    The prime minister’s adviser finally gave in. He wrote: “The survey methodology used here cannot be rubbished, it is a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones”.

    How would the government respond? Would it welcome the Johns Hopkins study as an important contribution to understanding the military threat to Iraqi civilians? Would it ask for urgent independent verification? Would it invite the Iraqi government to upgrade civilian security?

    Of course, our government did none of these things. Tony Blair was advised to say: “The overriding message is that there are no accurate or reliable figures of deaths in Iraq”.

    His official spokesman went further and rejected the Johns Hopkins report entirely. It was a shameful and cowardly dissembling by a Labour - yes, by a Labour - prime minister.

    Indeed, it was even contrary to the US’s own Iraq Study Group report, which concluded last year that “there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq”.

    This Labour government, which includes Gordon Brown as much as it does Tony Blair, is party to a war crime of monstrous proportions. Yet our political consensus prevents any judicial or civil society response. Britain is paralysed by its own indifference.

    At a time when we are celebrating our enlightened abolition of slavery 200 years ago, we are continuing to commit one of the worst international abuses of human rights of the past half-century. It is inexplicable how we allowed this to happen. It is inexplicable why we are not demanding this government’s mass resignation.

    Two hundred years from now, the Iraq war will be mourned as the moment when Britain violated its delicate democratic constitution and joined the ranks of nations that use extreme pre-emptive killing as a tactic of foreign policy. Some anniversary that will be.

    · Richard Horton is a doctor and the editor of the Lancet - Richard.Horton@lancet.com

    © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

  6. Toxic Reverend on October 3rd, 2007 11:21 pm

    Photo’s of American’s demanding impeachment
    of bush are posted with updates to current protests.
    The fourth “Beaching To Impeach” is set for Oct 7, 2007
    http://www.beachimpeach.org/

    Thank you Brad Newsham …..

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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