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The Awful Sound of Silence
" And no one dared disturb the sound of silence. "
--Paul Simon
While I suppose one could argue that it's too early to start identifying the most under-reported story of the 21st century to date, I should think that the actual death and human suffering toll in Iraq might top the list of almost any discerning journalist, academic, policymaker, or for that matter, peacemaker. The fact that the scale and scope of the tragedy has been successfully obscured, so far, is in itself quite a story, though perhaps one with an ending that may leave our collective sense of fundamental goodness more than a bit shaken.
How is it that we in America haven't considered this question seriously? I understand we're in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I understand we're shedding jobs at an alarming rate. I get it that hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions, are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure. No one disputes that these are tough times for a great many people in this country.
But what are the people of Iraq facing? What must it be like to be a survivor of the Iraqi War? Let's start with what's been reported so far.
The website Iraq Body Count has cross documented the violent deaths of between 90,000 to 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the 2003 American led invasion and occupation. Most experts agree that this number is, in all probability, significantly below the actual death toll.
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins estimated that as of July, 2006, the death toll had exceeded 600,000 people.
A September 2007 study by the prestigious British polling firm Opinion Research Business, put the death toll at 1.2 million Iraqis.
Calculating a rate of increase derived from the numbers reported on Iraq Body Count, (and assuming that the survey methodologies of the Johns Hopkins and Opinion Business Research studies are sound), Just Foreign Policy estimates the current number of Iraqi dead at roughly 1.3 million people.
MIT researcher John Tirman has reported that there are perhaps 1 million Iraqi widows, up to 5 million orphans, and 4.5 million refugees as a result of the war.
What do these numbers mean? For the sake of trying to understand let's pick a number halfway between the Iraq Body Count and Just Foreign Policy estimates. Let's assume that 650,000 Iraqi's have suffered violent deaths since 2003. Let's further assume that the halfway mark also applies to the number of widows, orphans and refugees the war has produced. Then let's put these numbers into context by noting that the population of Iraq in 2003 was roughly one tenth the population of the United States, and then by taking an imaginative leap. Here goes.
A brutal tyrant ascends to power in America, crushing opposition political parties, murdering dissidents and destroying our civil liberties. The European Union and Canada decide to invade in order to "liberate" the American people. And in the ensuing war 6.5 million civilians die violently from military and sectarian conflicts. Civilians, mind you. And the war also produces 6.5 million widows, 25 million orphans, and another 20 milion people displaced from their homes, or become refugees. And the numbers might be double that. 12 Million dead. 40 million refugees. 50 million orphans. Think about it for a moment, if you can.
Tens and tens of millions of Americans would know someone who had been killed in the war. Tens and tens of millions more would know war widows and orphans, or of neighbors, friends or family who fled elsewhere to escape the violence, perhaps permanently displaced. And tens and tens of millions more would have seen violent death and injury first hand. And all of this death and suffering against the backdrop of a destroyed power grid, healthcare system and general infrastructure. A nation and it's people reduced to rubble and despair.
We'd be absolutely awash in grief and shock if such a thing happened in this country. A lot of us wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning. A lot of us would feel as though we had no future and no hope. We'd never be the same again.
So how is it that any politician or pundit in America can talk about what did or did not "work" in the Iraqi War? How can a calamity of this magnitude be considered, in any sense whatsoever, a success? How could anyone in America have complained, as they have in the past, that the media doesn't report on the good things happening in Iraq. What good things?
Shouldn't somebody in Washington want to know the truth of what's happened in Iraq? Shouldn't the rest of us want to know, too? Shouldn't we be talking out loud about all of this? Maybe the crisis we're facing here at home is more than just an economic one.
- Posted in
69 Comments so far
Show All'They' want us to forget that history, the better to repeat it.
Yes! Well said. Over at the Huffington Post there's a story about Obysmal having conversations with George Wanker Bush since Bush left office. Why? What does Obysmal possibly hope to learn from that fool and enemy of democracy? Why is talking to him? As you said, "They want us to forget that history, the better to repeat it."
Not to mention the history of the British Empire in the region. The boundaries of almost the entire ME were drawn by the British solely to serve Imperial interests; the legacy of that we are still dealing with. The attitudes about Empire, "collateral damage", brazen callousness, arrogance and hypocrisy are too much to bear and the similarities are striking. Very little has changed in the last 100 years in that regard, and we have learned nothing from history. Lord Cromer would be proud.
Our M$M is working for the man.
After seeing so many horrible pictures online I was moved to make this online viral video in 2006 that has had millions of views and is still number 1 on google when you search for "no bravery"
http://nobravery.cf.huffingtonpost.com
peace
Sioux Rose
And this Orwellian news model that obscures all the tragic details mentioned in this article is now being deployed for a similar set of circumstances aimed at Afghanistan and likely Pakistan.
Perhaps the giants of Asia will rise in unison against the great empire that sees fit to decimate other lands and peoples at its (darkly tainted) will.
As an advocate of social justice for ALL, I stand against the policies of U.S. imperialism and its cruel impacts on so many innocents. To have wreaked so much harm only to pretend otherwise, the machine marches on to continue its path of wonton destruction. The new unmanned drones and robotic plans for future military acts fit this beast perfectly: it is just a machine with no parts that can feel, no capacity for empathy with the sentient beings it demolishes in its path. I pray something greater than the hubristic power of the US military machine puts a stop to this outrageous carnage.
Rose , I wish that leaders wishing to war on others had to lead the charge with short swords on foot.To stand face to face against "enemy" brothers and sons and fathers,look into thier eyes as they hacked them to pieces. Hearing thier cries and feeling thier death throes in thier guts as ancient warriors did.If George the younger had to confront Saddam Hussein on the field of battle with a sword how eager would he be?If the entire conflict could be settled by the "leaders" and winner take all,just think of the carnage avoided.I would bet that endless war would lose it's macho appeal really quickly. peace
Look dead Iraqis are of no concern to Americans, Americans are brainwashed! We Americans only pretend to care for life. Look at the sufferring that is being caused by the "banking scandel," but the banksters are fine and that is all that matters, right! The kids who will not get feed, clothed, educated, housed, recieve medical attention, beat because of stressed parents, put in foster care, the list is endless but do Americans really care? NO! Welcome to the age of stupid!!!
Not really stupid, but decades of "socialization" (brainwashing) into thinking that we must be selfish, "utility maximizing" individual consumers who are not taught to see the bigger picture, contexts or relationships. Nothing is interconnected and as long as we have "ours", no one gives a f#%$ about anyone else. Selfish, callous greed has been the lesson of the last 30-40 years. If you aint rich, you are either stupid, lazy or both. If I make 20 million a year, I deserve it.
Summed up by the classic Pink Floyd "I'm alright Jack, Keep your hands off of my stack"
This is a recipe for social decay and that is exactly what we are witnessing. Trust has been betrayed: trust in the economic system, political system, health "care" system, are largely gone.
Our socialization has been to learn that we are individuals. Everyone has the responsibility to take care of themselves. There is no community. We don't care and share. We have no idea of any value of doing things together to benefit us all.
Social Security is not an individual savings account for your retirement. It is an agreement between the generations. The working people pay in to a fund that pays pensions to the elderly. And when they are old, the young will pay to care for them.
The question as to whether the single payer health care bill is good is lost when people say "I got mine! I'm not going to pay for someone else's health care". Only if we feel like members of a community can we see that by all paying to cover the risk of illness to any of us is best for all of us. We share the cost and all benefit.
What Americans need to learn is that to care for one another is the best way for us all to have a good life---you know, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. It's all about being caring for one another and not being a self centered beast.
Nice one.
"Everything I Wanted to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten."
Hey, its true.
Right on target. We pretend to care (there are still people out there claiming we "liberated" them) when in fact, we have pretty much destroyed their society!
And the same thing is happening in Afghanistan--in the name of democracy.
Yet when the chickens come home to roost, all over the United States bewildered people will be asking, "Why do they hate us?"
It's not that the American media is a 'dog with no teeth'.
but that 'no dog bites it's master...'
It's a heartbreaking situation.
And for what?
1. Destruction of museums and archeaological sites by barbarians and their hired guns who couldn't seem to get that civilization, and subsequently, HISTORY, began in Mesopatamia.
2. To rip off somebody else's `petroleum. Which has not exactly panned out.
3. To kill as many proponents of an opposing WESTERN religion as they could point rifles at.
4. To try to inflate the testicles of a testosterone-driven country that has not actually won a war since the trumped up war against Spain that they waged to rip off its colonies after blowing up their own ship, the Maine, in the harbor of La Habana.
NOT to:
1. Destroy WMD--there never were any except the ones Rumsfeld gave to Hussein to use against Iranis.
2. Depose a hated tyrant. I spend time in the Middle East and I don't know a single person there--much less a single Iraqui--who believes that Iraq was not MUCH better off under Hussein.
3. Inculcate democracy. To inculcate a political system you have to know what it is--and the US is not even close to being a democracy, and never WAS.
So all these folks--including the poor folks recruited as cannon-foder in the KMarts and WakMarts of crummy towns in the US--died for nothing except a few moments of jerking off by a retarded man who should have been in a shletered workshop, not in the Oval Office.
One of the most shamfeul and senseless periods in wESTERN HISTORY.
"Inculcate democracy."
A truly fatuous idea for many reasons, not least of which is that there isn't a single democracy in the world that has been given that system by a foe, or by a friend either. Democracy evolves and takes centuries to do so. What's generally recognized as the first repesentational parliament in England met in 1264. 700 years later the Voting Rights Act in the USA more-or-less settled the theory, at least, that race shouldn't exclude people from voting in this country. We still, however, ban citizens in jail or with prior criminal records from voting (a horrendous percentage of our fellow citizens) so we are FAR from democratic in the way many other countries are. But, as with everything else, we are the best at Democracy and everyone should be like we say we are.
Rainborowe
Should I choke on my apple pie now, or wait for the flag to pass by?
Actually, the first democratic parliament was the Icelandic Althing - founded in 930 AD.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I remember the 13 American colonies of Britain were not established by Icelanders but by royal patents from the kings of England and the efforts of their subjects. And the leaders of the Revolution were, for the most part, descendants subject of the kings of England just like the people who formed the local governments of the colonies.
The Althing had no known connection to Colonial American ideas of popular representation in the late 18th century. The events in England in the mid-to-late-17th century most definitely did, not least because many Englishmen left England during the reigns of the early Stuart kings, and then returned to England in the Civil Wars of the 1640s in order to fight alongside their English cousins the attempt of King Charles I to subdue Parliament once and for all so as to have unfettered "Divine Right" to treat his subject as peons whose only purpose was to fill his coffers and fight his ridiculous wars.
These events were direct precursors of the American War of Independence. Englishmen and women came to this country to be free of the alien Stuart kings of England who just didn't accept that English monarchs had by then accepted the fact that they could only rule with the consent of the governed. When necessary (1640s Civil Wars) Anglo-Americans returned to help re-establish that parliamentary system in England and defeat a predatory monarch. In 1660 the son of that (tried and executed) monarch was restored and set about executing all those parliamentarians who had signed his father's death warrant. Some of those men headed for America again. In retaliation for the refusal of Massachusetts to hand them over, Charles withdrew the colony's charter, which made life very difficult (legal limbo and uncertainty which is probably one reason for the Salem witch hysteria.)
The point is that there was a constant cross-Atlantic movement of Anglo-Americans working to defend representative democracy in England and a great interest in it by other Americans who remained here but cheered on the liberators in England. It's pretty obvious that this process had to have had a great effect on the minds of those Americans who, in the 18th Century, came to see that their "mother country" enjoyed rights of representation that they were refused, even though their fathers and brothers had helped secure them to their cousins in England.
Rainborowe
Sorry for the repetition.
Rainborowe
So now we are the Good Germans. History will not be kind to us, nor do we deserve it to be. What I am curious about is who will be writing it. Perhaps in Chinese?
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
"Maybe the crisis we're facing here at home is more than just an economic one."
Yes, the crisis is the utter loss of morality. It has led to massive indifference to the killing of the "other", theft of the others' resources, and falsehood to support all this. Rooted in pride and greed, now considered "virtues".
Most Americans don't want "the truth". Many, including journalists and congressmen, were furious when Seymour Hersh revealed "the truth" about My Lai. Called him a traitor. Millions dead is Korea, Vietnam, Iraq? Yawn, ho hum. Make a movie about the angst and anguish of "our boys". "Duhhh...Yuh gonna let us win next time?"
I want to break the silence with a scream! But I think I'll cry instead...
Both sides of the isle will always love to scream and blabber like a bunch of bedwetting crybabies. We all want this and we all want that but you can't have it all. Instead of being so idealist all the time, we are all going to have to learn to shut up and compromise. All this silly talk about fear of silence reminds me of my pesky wife, actually now my ex-wife I forgot to mention yesterday, who kept demanding too much like most of you losers that I had to beat her in public. My stupid girlie brother who she loves can have him, LOL ! Bad times can come but sometimes it is necessary to shut up and learn to compromise even if it means conceding some things. Being too purist can make you sick and depressed. Glad my pesky ex-wife is out of the way so I can get rich and superlaughing. And I enjoy growing those GMO corn seeds. GMO is environmentally friendly in case you losers thought it harms mother earth. Besides, whoever thinks mother earth is going to kick my ass deserves to be laughed at. LOL !! OOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! LOL !!
Thanks, I enjoy sick, black humor. And hey, I love the gm corn too, unless Monsanto gets too much more greedy.
Gee Greg, how much is" too much more greedy" wouldn't you rather support a regional cooperative seed company you could own as a member.You could hybridize family hierlooms and share and reuse seed without fear of lawsuits.Save and reuse your own seed corn beans etc. You could still use no-till and Glysophate resistant GMOs if the coop board voted it economical,or not.Using BT corn may harm non target lepidoptera species like Monarc Butterfies and Moths.So unless it's sweet corn whats wrong with earworms and borers . peace
Greg and Johnny,
Don't listen to that fraud "Nebraska Nathan1". Please read my response to him. He's worse than he posts.
"Nature is indifferent to our love, but never unfaithful."
-Edward Abbey
Hello there big bad brother. I know who you are and you're not untracable. However, because I'm nice enough, I will not reveal your name even though I'm happy to reveal mine. You think you can have fun badmouthing your ex-wife now my wife so easy? You may have had all your fun bullying me ever since we were born and you may have gotten away with framing me for the crime that YOU committed against my wife. But you know that I have come fighting back and counter kicking your ass no matter how many times you tried to sabotage our business. I have already cracked down on your fraudulent sales and I will not allow you to get away with allowing the agri-corps to take over our inherited farm as you are trying to do. Our parents made the biggest mistake of giving you all the inheritance while unfairly disowning me for being nice but unable to get married simply because of your badmouthing my record despite the fact that I was cleared of wrongdoing after my lawyer proved my innocence. And you can keep having fun talking about the way you had fun hitting my wife when she was then yours but I shot you twice in the back before you could successfully beat my wife to death in front of everyone. It's time for you to stop bullying others and you and me to have a real man to man talk, bad brother ! I know who you are and I may not have won according to you but I'm going to see to it that you don't get away with your scams. I have already busted 3 of your business partners and put them behind bars and don't expect me to bail your sorry ass out this time. I only bailed you out for your then wife but now that she's mine, your days of bullying our numbered and are about to be terminated. I'll be watching you !
I will repost this warning as a response to another post you trolled at as well.
Ouch. I'm sorry to hear what you have been through. I'm glad you're able to get back on your feet and do the right thing. All of us wish you the best of luck nailing that "Nebraska Nathan1". He has no regards for other people's sufferings and is a savage to say the least.
Sounds like Mother Earth kicked your ass a long time ago.
Sounds like Mother Earth kicked your ass a long time ago.
Tristle, tressle, trossle, trone, time for this one to be banned...
Missed a couple of numbers:
The Pentagon figures 3-5 wounded for every kill - so, on the low end, we're talking 3-5 million wounded innocent Iraqis, maybe another 1/2 million innocent Afghanis.
Then we got 4300 US KIA in Iraq w/a reported 46,000+ injured, not counting the 300,000+ who have filed injury claims with the VA; 686 US KIA in Afghanistan, est. 20,000+ WIA.
So that's 5,000 DEAD US soldiers, almost 400,000 wounded. And a record level of soldier suicides, don't forget...
For... what again?
Let the screaming begin in earnest now!
"we're talking 3-5 million wounded innocent Iraqis,"
Interesting how neither of the cited studies checked for that. So what's our best evidence that there really are this many wounded?
One of any of the above, theirs or ours was too many.
Ever get the feeling we're repeating ourselves? I've read this same article (written by other authors) about 5 times a week since the wars started. The only difference is the growing bodycount.
I am afraid this will not be the last either
God and country, your with us or against us.
The right wing Christian lunatics have made this a Holy War.
The numbers of dead are not productive for their cause, just the opposite.Bush appointed over 200 people to his administration from Liberty University, Jerry Falwells Bastian of moral righteousness.
They just shutdown the small student club for Democrats at the University because of their liberal and progressive views ." Liberty University" That name is joke.
I don't want right wing Cristian lunatics any where near our three branches of government or the pentagon.
Pure religious hypocrisy at its very worst, the anti-abortion crowd don't want to preach the real word of the Prince of Peace.
True Christians and their objections to these wars are being kept silent by the right wing lunatics in their congregations and that includes ministers and pastors.
If we are to end these holy wars, we need to join forces, right and left, peace loving Christians and non-Christians , and march to Washington in full force. Millions of peace activists is the only way.
Abortion is an evil immoral act of sin, but you wont see these fanatics at an Obama speech Get up and shut out " 600000" dead in Iraq" STOP THESE WARS.
Personally , I know how twisted these right wing fake Christians can be. They are mean, and nasty. They will stalk you , and drive you crazy if they find out you are a threat to their fake Christianity.
They have become the self proclaimed stazi police.
They are disgusting and vile human beings and they are only fooling them selves, everyone else sees through their fake convictions.
WWJD........WWJD........WWJD.........WWJD
Why is it we have no media concerning important happenings--like war and international grand theft in moment like these? Could it possibly be due to the owners of these media--and the agenda they serve. If the answer is YES--then the next question would be, who are they? When you have the answer please raise your hand. now we know who it is that's lying to us and allowing all this evil to continue.
" assuming that the survey methodologies of the Johns Hopkins and Opinion Business Research studies are sound"
You also have to assume that the methodologies were actually implemented correctly, that the algorythims used between the raw data and conclusions were also sound, and perhaps find out if anyone has been able to duplicate the results.
Please provide a source for your spelling of
a l g o r i t h m s
nano, me thinks artistic license allows for artfull prose!Please don't police my spelling ,grammar,or punctuation.In this case in this case his use of al-gory-thms was apropriate. just sayin... peace
Um, AL Gore. I assume that's your only problem with the post and you agree with it in substance?
perhaps if the politicians and leaders kings etc. thru history had the blood of THEIR families
on their hands and i do mean literally the outcome of humanity would have been different.
ever wonder?
Now you are getting somewhere- that IS what it would take. And, so be it.
The writer of this article seems confused as to what the media's job is here in america. Where does the founder's belief enter into this about body count and other 'collateral damage.?' I don't see any reference to such blood and gore in the Constinewtion, the articles of change. Forget it. Go back to t.v.. I mean what difference does it make that we kill millions of people and the banks rip us off of our iras', yet we give them trillions in future earnings of our grand children.
You think each is connected?
Obviously, Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Congolese, Somalis, Sudanese, and any people in most African/South American/Asian countries don't matter. "They" are "The Others" who don't count enough to be part of our news, unlike Americans, Europeans, and Israelis, who are real humnas, just like us.
Besides, we have more pressing matters to attend to, such as who won "American Idol", what's happening with Brad & Angelina or Tom and Katie, or which overpaid athlete is using steroids.
If silence equals complicity, then the "awful sound of silence" tells a very tragic tale.
What silence? Cheney is on television day and night, his lip curling in contempt for those who threw him and his sidekick out of office.
He, with no mandate, is constantly deriding Obama on right-wing media outlets while he justifies his own dark reign and the wonderful refinements of torture and rendition and Gitmo and various invasions and occupations.
If only he could be silenced! A noose would do the trick.
www.dangerouscreation.com
There has been a lot of bullying as to who can be the loudmouth vs who and what should be kept silent. Dick Cheney is a bully who must be silenced. He reminds me of my evil bully brother who calls himself "Nebraska Nathan1" here. It takes a lot to be able to counter bullying. The media is fixed to give him all the say but kill progressive dissent. We must take down the media. How that will be done other than not subscribing to cable or satellite remains to be seen.
Thanks for the warning. Mean people SUCK!