Untitled Document
Memorial Day in the U.S. is officially a commemoration for members of the American
military who have died in combat, so perhaps I could have forgiven a one-day
omission of any other victims of American wars. But this, a sidebar (not online)
to an column in the San Jose Mercury News about the "horror
of war," was simply unforgiveable:
The War's Human Toll
2,466
Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom as of May
26
More than 18,000
The number of U.S. military members wounded
|
So now Iraqis and Afghans and all the other victims of U.S. aggression aren't
even worth remembering, they aren't even human.
How much better if the American people used this day to remember all
those victims: more than 100,000 fatalities from the invasion of Iraq,
including not just those 2,466 American soldiers, but 224
soldiers from allied countries, and the Iraqi civilians, military (former
and current), police, and resistance fighters whose numbers can only be estimated.
378 coalition fatalities (including
296 Americans) resulting from the invasion of Afghanistan, at least 3,500
Afghan civilians (as of the end of 2001!) who, it is worth remembering,
had a lot less to do with the composition and actions of their own government
than did the nearly 3,000 innocent Americans who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and
thousands of Taliban fighters who, whatever their reactionary religious ideas,
died legitimately defending their country from an illegal foreign invasion.
And there are others we should remember. The estimated one
million Iraqis, the majority children, who died from the effect of a blockade
which continued long after its alleged purpose, the destruction of Iraqi WMD,
had been accomplished. The hundreds if not thousands of Iraqis who were killed
by years of bombing on the U.S.-U.K. imposed "no-fly" zones, bombing
which is now acknowledged as having been used to "soften up" Iraq
for the coming invasion. And let's not forget the North Koreans, Iranians,
and others, who have died from lack of health care or proper nutrition because
their governments had to divert precious resources to defend against the very
real threat of attack by the United States.
No doubt there are others I've forgotten in this brief summary. The cost of
imperialism is high indeed.
Update: Already, just minutes after writing the above, this
story about the death of a CBS camera crew in Baghdad reminds me of a group
I left out--the hundreds of non-Iraqi (or Afghan) civilians
who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, including reporters, contractors (real
ones, not just mercenaries), and others.
Update 2: Here's another group to remember: the spouses and
others who have been murdered by soldiers returning from the war with their
minds seriously tormented by their experiences. Not to mention the ones who
have "merely" taken their own lives.
