The bloody war that began in March, 2003 and has inflicted over 100,000 civilian deaths among the civilian population makes one forget that the genocide actually began 15 years ago.

It was in 1990 when the United States imposed the blockade against Iraq using the United Nations. Up until the invasion, an average of 120,000 people, including 72,000 children, died each year as the result of insufficient food and the lack of medicines.

Conservative calculations estimate that 900,000 is the total number of children under five that died during that period. When adding the rest of the victims of the US-UN policy, it is estimated that a total of 1.5 million lives were lost.

Add to that the damage caused to the environment as a consequence of the enriched uranium used in the bombs launched indiscriminately over an extended area. The lethal agent has contaminated numerous water supply sources, large portions of arable land and the air.

As the direct result of the environmental damage there are more and more frequent deaths due to respiratory ailments, tumors unregistered in the medical bibliographies and deformed newborns.

Testimonies before the invasion narrate horrendous scenes in the hospitals with people suffering and a helpless medical personal without resources.

The British medical magazine Lancet states that the occupation of Iraq has caused 100,000 dead, but that the people who died from hunger and misery are forgotten.

This savage war which should be taken as an example of human rights violations has been committed against a nation where 45 percent of the population is under 15 years of age.

The crimes the US troops are committing daily are in the news, too blatant to be hidden like the children dying from hunger. Besides the chief victims, the Iraqis, they are responsible for the deaths of over 1,800 US soldiers and many more thousands of wounded.

After having justified the crimes against the civilian population for over a decade they now justify the massacre as necessary to fight the "terrorist" resistance movement.

The conduct of the White House team is so irrational that it looks like an end to the conflict will be similar to Vietnam when the casualties in the US Armed Forces strengthened the peace movement.

Only the anti war movement will break the stubbornness and the arrogance of those who have a total disregard for life in their oil wars.