The real cost of the "War on Terror"

Jeff Sparrow has written an article about the obsession with capital punishment in The Age, 1 January 2007. "Delivering convenient death shrinks all our souls". It starts out with a predictable question, along the lines of: "Why do people want to watch the death throws of Saddam Hussein" - which he refers to as "digital necrophilia".

But then, he switches tack, and comes up with these statistics - OK, he has borrowed them from "The Independent" in Britain.

"the Global War on Terror, ... according to Britain's Independent, has already taken the lives of 62,000 people, created 4.5 million refugees and cost the US more than the sum needed to pay off the debts of every poor nation on earth..."

There you go - they could have paid off world debt - but instead chose to fabricate a reason to invade Iraq - so that they could steal the resources of a sovereign nation. OK, not many people think kindly of Saddam, but he was as legitimate a ruler as many others I could name. And don't forget the Americans worked with him, when it suited them, (because of Iran).

It also shows that continuing world poverty is a choice made by powerful Governments.

The people who campaign to "Make Poverty History" must be spewing over these statistics.

Saddam has been executed.

The news services are full of it - the news that Saddam Hussein has been executed.

There is little doubt he was indeed a mass-murderer of people who opposed his view of the world.

But in that he is not Robertson Crusoe (as the phrase is). In other words he is not alone, in that charge.

I simply ask - how many innocent Iraqis have died since George W Bush decided to invade Iraq?

And let us not forget the spurious grounds on which the Invasion of Iraq was perpetrated. The reality is now more obvious than it seemed when John Howard signed Australia up to the "Coalition of the Willing".

The reality of this wart is that it is a war based on the theft of the resources of a previously independent and autonomous nation - Iraq.

Now the country has had its infrastructure destroyed. It is a far more dangerous place today than before Saddam was overthrown. The invasion might have been successful, but the occupation has been an unmitigated disaster - for all concerned (not the least, for the 2995 American soldiers) who have died in a pointless war (as at 230 December 2006).

The Americans have been meticulous in NOT COUNTING Iraqi casualties - "Why bother?". However, some people have been trying to keep tally. They estimate these deaths to have amounted to 52060 (minimum) or 57628 (maximum). I have no way of judging how accurate these body counts are - judge for yourself.

Whether or not George Bush is a war criminal - surely enough people have died? George W Bush ought pull out of Iraq.

John Howard should never have taken Australia into this evil, illegal and unjustified War.

He did not listen to the Australians who opposed the war.

He ignored those who prayed for him not to join the war.