Deepening U.S. violence against Iraq impels anti-war push-back

Occupation, Militarization
Must End

Editing and excerpting 

Carolyn Bennett

Associated Press Recap

U.S. Occupying Personnel

“The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is the largest in the world,” roughly 5,000 occupying U.S. personnel. Additional U.S. personnel deployed by the U.S. State Department occupy three U.S. consulates: in Basra (southeastern Iraq, the country’s principal port); in Irbil (Arbil, an ancient town in northern Iraq, 48 miles east of Mosul in the foothills of the mountains that rise to the east, also links by roads to Turkey, Syria, and Iran); and in Kirkuk (northeastern Iraq, 145 miles north of Baghdad).

Today “more than 100 U.S. military personnel” are deployed in Iraq “in a section of the U.S. Embassy that coordinates U.S. foreign military sales to Iraq.” Scores of U.S. Marines, “more than 100 …provide security at the embassy.”

Sending further U.S. military for training Iraqis was officially curtailed when “Baghdad rejected Washington’s insistence that [U.S.] troops be granted immunity from prosecution [impunity] while in the country.” However, a fairly large training mission was based at the air base in Balad, about an hour northwest of Baghdad, from which “three planeloads of Americans were evacuated” this past week.

U.S. Mercenaries

Also in Iraq are former “Pentagon contractors” [Americans] turned “Iraqi government” contractors who “have been providing a range of military sales support and training” related to “weapons and other military equipment purchased [by Iraq] from the United States.”

U.S.-armed against Iraq’s own people

Iraq is reportedly scheduled to purchase 36 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter planes priced tagged at “$3 billion.” Together with these, the United States “has recently sold a variety of high-end equipment, including hundreds of Hellfire air-to-ground missiles, tank ammunition, grenades, rifles and other weaponry [ and] the Pentagon recently notified Congress of plans to sell an additional $1 billion in military equipment to Iraq.”

 

U.S. death toll (estimate)

The United States (its people, government, military) fought an eight-year war [actually more than eight years of U.S. presidencies extending to the George H.W. Bush administration] against the Iraqi people and ousted their president, Saddam Hussein. Monetary Cost estimate in the 8-year period: “hundreds of billions of dollars.” U.S. deaths estimate: exceeding “4,400.” 

U

.S. in Iraq 2003-2009-2012 (estimates, incomplete toll)

Wikipedia notes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

U.S.-led multinational coalition death toll: 4,486 U.S. service members killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2012; information on Iraqi military and civilian casualties less precise, less consistent.

Lancet Study figures based on household survey data:

654,965 excess deaths through the end of June 2006. Estimate is for all excess violent and nonviolent deaths including deaths due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc.; 601,027 deaths (range of 426,369 to 793,663 using a 95 percent confidence interval) were estimated to be due to violence: 31 percent of those were attributed to the Coalition, 24 percent to others, 46 percent unknown. The causes of violent deaths were gunshot (56 percent), car bomb (13 percent), other explosion/ordnance (14 percent), airstrike (13 percent), accident (2 percent), unknown (2 percent). A copy of a death certificate was available for a high proportion of the reported deaths (92 percent of those households asked to produce one). 

Body counts: 

Associated Press

110,600 violent deaths

March 2003-April 2009  

Iraq Body Count project

112,667–123,284 civilian deaths from violence; 174,000 civilian and combatant deaths
March 2003-March 2013 

Classified Iraq War Logs 

109,032 deaths, including 66,081 civilian deaths
January 2004-December 2009 

Classified U.S. military documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010 

Iraqi and Coalition military deaths ● January 2004 - December 2009
109,032 deaths: “Civilian” 66,081 deaths; “Host Nation” 15,196 deaths; “Enemy” 23,984 deaths; “Friendly” 3,771 deaths

With all the pain and suffering U.S. officials have brought to the land and people of Iraq, they and their  “partners,” who comprise a lethal cabal in America's relations with the world, still haven't had enough blood. They are resuming their belligerent threats and lectures with a view toward compounding the residual harm of post-war, expanding a hostile occupation, and deepening Iraq’s pain with even more violent aggression. 

Some Americans want this cruelty to stop. I'm one of them.  

Anti-war Push-back

T

he A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition calls the nation to attend NO NEW U.S. WAR ON IRAQ

Nationwide demonstrations Friday and Saturday June 20 and 21 ── Included in this call to action, in addition to ANSWER, are Code Pink, World Can't Wait, and others.

T

he anti-war movement must mobilize “to tell the Obama administration that the people of the United States absolutely oppose any new war on Iraq. We cannot sit by idly when the Pentagon may be about to open a new chapter in its history of death and destruction.”

No New U.S. War on Iraq! Initial posts

http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/emergency-actions-no-new.html

Washington, D.C.
Monday, June 16, 5 p.m.
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Initiated by Code Pink and other organizations
Sat., June 21, 1 p.m.
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Los Angeles, CA
Sat., June 21, 1 p.m.
Pershing Square
(Corner of 5th & Hill)
Downtown LA

San Francisco, CA
Sat., June 21, Noon
Corner of Powell and Market Sts

Sacramento, CA
Sat., June 21, 1 p.m.
16th & J Sts

Eureka, CA
Sat. June 21, Noon
County Courthouse, 5th & I Sts

Fresno, CA
Saturday, June 21st, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Peace Corner - Blackstone & Shaw

Tallahassee, FL
Sat., June 21, 12:30 p.m.
Florida State Capitol
400 South Monroe Street

Chicago, IL
Sat., June 21, Noon
Federal Plaza
(Adams and Dearborn)

Twin Cities, MN
Wednesday, June 18, 5 p.m.
Lake Street/Marshall Ave., bridge between Minneapolis & St. Paul
More information at 612-522-1861 or 612-827-5364

Albuquerque, NM
Fri., June 20, 6 p.m.
UNM Bookstore
(Intersection of Central & Cornell)

New York, NY
Tuesday, June 17, 5:30 p.m.
Outside Democratic Party where Obama is speaking
Gotham Hall, 1356 Broadway, between 36th and 37th Sts
Initiated by World Can't Wait
Friday, June 20, 6 p.m.
Harlem Armed Forces Recruitment Center
76 W. 125th St (2/3 trains)

Philadelphia, PA
Thursday, June 19, 4:30 p.m.
15th and Market Sts

Sources and notes

“A look at the U.S. presence in Iraq,” Robert Burns, Associated Press, June 14, 2014

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/look-us-presence-iraq-075331501.html;_ylt=AwrBJR7WKp9TOzsAO.zQtDMD

“NO NEW U.S. WAR ON IRAQ: Actions at the White House in D.C., in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Albuquerque, Sacramento and many more cities on June 20 and 21!,”

http://www.answercoalition.org/

Emergency Actions Nationwide: NO NEW U.S. WAR ON IRAQ, June 13, 2014, post

http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/emergency-actions-no-new.html

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