War, occupation at what cost

What return?

Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

“World military expenditure is estimated to have been $1,630 billion in 2010,” says a report by the Stockholm International Peace Institute. In real terms, this is “an increase of 1.3 percent” and the “increase in 2010 is almost entirely down to the United States, which accounted for $19.6 billion of the $20.6 billion real-terms increase.

“Excluding the USA, the total in the ‘rest of the world’ barely changed in 2010, increasing by a statistically insignificant 0.1 per cent.…

“The rate of increase in U.S. military spending slowed in 2010, to 2.8 percent in real terms, compared to an annual average increase of 7.4 percent between 2001 and 2009 [but] the United States continues to be exceptional in terms of its military spending.

“As well as being overwhelmingly the largest spender in absolute terms, with 43 percent of the global total — six times its nearest rival China — the U.S. has led the way in the global increase since 2001, with an 81 percent rise in real terms compared to 32.5 percent in the ‘rest of the world’.

“Moreover, the share of U.S. GDP devoted to the military — the ‘military burden’ — has increased sharply, from 3.1 per cent in 2001 to an estimated 4.8 percent in 2010, while in the majority of others worldwide the military burden has fallen or remained steady.

“Of those countries for which SIPRI has reliable data, the USA is likely to have had the highest military burden outside the Middle East in 2010, based on IMF projections for GDP.

“Even in the face of efforts to bring down the soaring U.S. budget deficit, military spending continues to receive privileged treatment.

“President Obama’s FY2012 budget announced a 5-year freeze on non-security-related discretionary expenditure, but military spending along with other security spending such as intelligence and Homeland Security is exempt.

“Such cuts as may occur are likely to be due to the end of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq and the gradual drawdown from Afghanistan, rather than to cuts in the ‘base’ defense budget. Taken together, these figures suggest that the USA continues to prioritize maintaining its overwhelming military power as the basis of its security and status.…”

At what cost, what return?

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting April 12, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)

Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20,

2009: 219] Information out of date

•

Wounded 33,003-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: April 11, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

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Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

100,383 – 109,666

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

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ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN: 1,532 U.S.; 2,403 Coalition

IRAQ: 4,447 U.S.; 4,765 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

AFGHANISTAN

“Afghanistan is struggling to recover from more than a quarter century of conflict.” Violence still rages in parts of the country. The Taliban continue fighting to oust tens of thousands of foreign troops and Afghanistan’s Western-backed government. The country is one of the most heavily mined in the world and home to a booming narcotics trade.

“The UN and ICRC have recorded that 730,000 people have been internally displaced in Afghanistan due to conflict since 2006, an average of 400 a day. At the end of January 2011, 309,000 people remained internally displaced due to armed conflict, human rights abuses and other generalized violence. This figure was higher than at any time since 2005.

“While armed opposition groups have been responsible for the majority of killings, most of the documented mass displacements have occurred as a result of offensives by international forces. Efforts by the International Security Assistance Force in 2010 to limit the impact of fighting on the civilian population have failed to reduce the rate of internal displacement.

“The basic needs of recently displaced people across most regions of the country are often unmet, increasing the risk of disease and death. Internally displaced people (IDPs) have also been vulnerable to food insecurity, while insecurity and the absence of basic services in places of displacement have forced many IDPs into protracted secondary displacement in urban areas.

“The Afghan government is generally unable or unwilling to assist IDPs. Hundreds of thousands of IDPs have been assisted by international agencies, but assistance outside camps has been short-term and restricted by problems of funding and access.”

“Friendly Fire” in Helmand

Two U.S. soldiers died from a suspected U.S. drone strike. The incident is under investigation and if confirmed, “It would be a rare example of a ‘friendly fire’ killing of U.S. forces by the pilotless aircraft.”

A military official told Reuters, anonymously, that the “initial information” indicated the dead had been killed “during a Hellfire missile strike in southern Afghanistan.” The soldiers had been conducting operations in Helmand province. More than 1,500 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan since the war began nearly a decade ago. Violence here reached its highest level since the start of this U.S. war.

PAKISTAN

Eight people died and several suffered injuries in the northwestern town of Dir when a suicide bomb exploded at a bus stand. A car dealer who had helped in a security operation against Taliban a few days earlier was the apparent target.

The beheaded body of a pro-government tribal leader kidnapped some three weeks ago was found in the tribal region of South Waziristan on the Afghan border. Hundreds of tribesmen have died in the past years as a result of having been “‘U.S. spies’ or having “worked for the Pakistani government.”

Forty-one people died and scores suffered wounds when suicide bombs exploded last Sunday at a Sufi shrine in eastern Pakistan. Police said the attackers struck during an annual ceremony for the Sufi saint for whom the shrine is dedicated and approximately 65 people were wounded in the attack.

Many analysts say more than “religious hatred” is motivating the attacks; that “militant groups hope by inflaming sectarian tensions they can further destabilize Pakistan and weaken the government’s tenuous grip on the country.”

A bomb blast last October at a Sufi shrine in another eastern city, Pak Pattan, killed six people. One in July killed 42 people in Pakistan’s most important Sufi shrine, in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.

IRAQ

Ashraf camp

In conflicting reports, an estimated ten Iranian exiles died and five members of the Iraqi forces suffered wounds at Camp Ashraf in Iraq on Friday when “security forces clashed with residents of the Iranian dissident camp north of Baghdad overnight.” Residents of the camp had reportedly “pelted security forces with rocks.” A medical source reported to the press “10 bodies of Iranians and 40 people wounded in the hospital, most of them killed or wounded by bullets.”

The dispute was apparently over land rights and ownership. Government forces reportedly “tried to reclaim land from camp residents and return it to farmers who owned it.” People in the camp resisted. Camp residents reported “31 deaths and 300 people injured in a ‘criminal attack.’

Defense Ministry representative Mohammed al-Askari said the disparity in the death tolls prompted the government to open an investigation ‘to look into the real details of the operation, to know how many people exactly were killed, the reasons for the deaths and the date of the deaths.’ He said, “the government had evidence that some residents had wanted to leave Ashraf but were prevented from doing so by camp leaders, and that some of the alleged victims were shot ‘in a professional way, in the head, chest and heart.’”

“The United States blamed the bloodshed on the government.”

April 11 Fallujah

A series of roadside and car bombs killed several people trying to carry on their daily lives in Iraq. Six people died Monday and dozens suffered wounds when bombs exploded near a crowded market in Fallujah. Ten other people died in the Diyala province when roadside bombs exploded. Three people died in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, following the explosion of another roadside bomb.

Though violence has reportedly fallen sharply in Iraq in recent years, the country is subjected daily to bombings and other attacks.

Indelible eight years

In the 8th year from the dramatic removal of the statue of Iraq’s president, an aide to the anti-American cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, “told tens of thousands of followers (on Saturday), ‘We say to the Black House we are all time bombs and the detonators are at the hands of Moqtada al-Sadr. American troops must definitely leave our lands.’”

The warning came after the visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense pressed the Iraqi government to decide if they wanted U.S. troops to remain in Iraq and help fight an insurgency.

In their day of remembrance, many Iraqis waved their country’s black, white and red flag. Some “carried signs reading ‘Occupiers Out’, ‘No to America.’” Others burned flags of the United States, Israel and Britain. Others draped white funeral shrouds over their shoulders signifying their willingness to die for their beliefs.

The crowd cheered Sadr’s representative Salah al-Ubaidi when he warned on Saturday that “an extension of the U.S. ‘occupation’ would have two consequences: the escalation of military resistance and withdrawal of the order freezing the Mehdi Army; and the escalation of peaceful and public resistance through sit-ins and protests.”

Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia fought U.S. troops during the height of Iraq’s sectarian bloodshed in 2006-07. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sent government troops to crush the militia in 2008. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died. Sadr disavowed violence against fellow Iraqis and ordered his militia to become a humanitarian group.

Under a security agreement signed by the United States and Iraq, the remaining 47,000 (est.) U.S. forces are to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

LIBYA

More than 460,000 people have fled the violence in Libya and entered neighboring countries, primarily Tunisia and Egypt.

According to an aid official’s reports, “Sick people trapped in the western Libyan city of Misrata are dying because of shortages of vital medicines.” A coordinator for shipments of food and medicine told reporters that many were in need “especially of medicine for chronic diseases like cancer and hepatitis.”

Libya’s Oil via Qatar

The United States Department of State is reportedly supporting “the marketing of Libyan crude oil by Qatar on behalf of rebels fighting against President Muammar Qaddafi.” The U.S. statement followed Qatar’s report that it had marketed 1 million barrels of crude oil on behalf of Libya’s rebels.

YEMEN

More than 100 people have died in Yemen since February. Last week conflict escalated between government and anti-government demonstrators. Twelve Islamist militants and four soldiers died in clashes on Monday in the southern province of Abyan.

On Tuesday, President Ali Abdullah Saleh chaired a meeting of coalition allies that blamed the opposition for protests and civil disobedience in cities throughout the country. However, according to Reuters, “Even before the protests inspired by the toppling of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shiite Muslim insurgency in the north.”

For many years, Saudi Arabia and Western countries had backed Saleh as their man to fight al Qaeda militants but “countries of the region became convinced that Saleh is an obstacle to stability in a country that overlooks a shipping lane where over 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.”

Sources and notes

Background paper on SIPRI military expenditure, data, 2011“World military spending reached $1.6 trillion in 2010, biggest increase in South America, fall in Europe, according to new SIPRI data,”  STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SIPRI), Press background material, April 11, 2011, http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/translations11/milexbackground.pdf

“Afghanistan: Need to minimize new displacement and increase protection for recently displaced in remote areas,” April 11, 2011 (Source: Content partner // International Displacement Monitoring Centre), http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/afghanistan-need-to-minimise-new-displacement-and-increase-protection-for-recently-displaced-in-remote-areas/

“Two U.S. troops die in suspected Afghan drone strike,” April 11, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/two-us-troops-die-in-suspected-afghan-drone-strike/

“FACTBOX-Security developments in Pakistan, April 4, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/factbox-security-developments-in-pakistan-april-4/

“Suicide blasts at Sufi shrine in Pakistan kill 41,” April 3, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/suicide-blasts-at-sufi-shrine-in-pakistan-kill-41/

“At least 10 Iranian exiles killed in clashes in Iraq” (Muhanad Mohammed), April 8, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/08/us-iraq-iran-ashraf-idUSTRE7375CM20110408

“Iraqi govt says it will probe Iranian camp deaths” (Reuters), April 12, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/iraqi-govt-says-it-will-probe-iranian-camp-deaths/

“Nineteen killed, dozens wounded in Iraq bombings,” April 11, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/11/us-iraq-violence-idUSTRE73A5TS20110411

“Iraqi cleric warns of violence if U.S. troops don’t go,” April 9, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/09/us-iraq-protests-idUSTRE73816Z20110409

Source: member // Jaya Vadlamudi, Senior Communications Officer, International Medical Corps, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/international-medical-corps-sending-critical-supplies-into-misrata-nalut-in-western-libya-delivering-emergency-health-care-and-supplies-in-eastern-libya/

“Patients in Libyan city dying without drugs – rebel,” April 12, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/interview-patients-in-libyan-city-dying-without-drugs-rebel/

“U.S. says supports Qatar marketing Libyan oil,” April 12, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/us-says-supports-qatar-marketing-libyan-oil/

“Yemen opposition seeks details on Gulf plan,” April 12, 2011, http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/yemen-opposition-seeks-details-on-gulf-plan/

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/yemen-icrc-calls-for-respect-for-human-life-and-dignity/

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