Opinion

US invasion of Iraq killed 1.5m people

by Shenali D Waduge

The UN Human Rights Council sessions are in progress. The US, the world’s champion of human rights, rule of law and the living example of righteousness has through its delegation noted with concern the failure by the international community to act in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Syria and Sri Lanka. Leaving aside the failure of the countries named why doesn’t some nation attending these Human Rights sessions stand up and tell the US that 1.5 million Iraqi lives would not have perished if US did not illegally invade, occupy and take over assets belonging to Iraq which has been going on without abatement for the last 10 years.

Rwanda

US says the IC failed Rwanda. Rwanda President (a Hutu) Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, triggering the 100-day genocide of the Tutsi people? The guilt was laid on France. The genocide served a strategic and geopolitical objective for the US in its creation of US proxy states under an American sphere of influence.

France’s credibility was displaced just as is happening in the Central African republic. The civil war in Rwanda was actually a power struggle between Hutu-led Habyarimana supported by France and Tutsi Rwanda Patriotic Front backed by US.

In the words of former Cooperation Minister Bernard Debré in the government of France’s Prime Minister Henri Balladur: “What one forgets to say is that, if France was on one side, the Americans were on the other, arming the Ugandans, who armed the Tutsis.

"I don’t want to portray a showdown between the French and the Anglo-Saxons, but the truth must be told.”

When will the US admit to supporting the build up of Ugandan and Rwandan forces, of directly intervening in the Congolese civil war as well as direct responsibility for ethnic massacres in Eastern Congo including deaths of civilians in refugee camps?

When will US policy makers admit that it was aware four months before the genocide when the CIA warned the US State Dept in a confidential brief that the Arusha Accord would fail and that ‘upward of half a million people would die'? The US did not inform the UN forces in Rwanda.

Bosnia

Was there a Srebrenica ‘massacre’? Why were massacres committed by US-armed Muslims upon Serbian Bosnians ignored? Why was the 150 Serb villages and 2,383 Serb civilians killed between 1992 to July 1995 omitted and only Srebrenica hit world headlines?

The West says between 7,000-8,000 were executed, were these soldiers? If so the 2,383 were civilians mostly children and women.

The headlines also said mass graves, but they found less than 2,500 bodies mostly combat deaths! Why did western media ignore Serbian deaths by Bosnian Muslims? What is missed is that 20,000 Srebrenica women and children were bussed to safety by the Serb army while those that were killed died in combat.

Prof. Edward S Herman, an American economist and media analyst says that the accusation for killings must be put in context.

He argues that the Serb army had seen their own people massacred on a larger scale, these killings were purposely suppressed by the West and its media which projected that the Serbs came to Srebrenica and started killing which he says was absolutely wrong.

Prof. Herman says the ‘Srebrenica massace’ was a ‘tremendous propaganda triumph’ – the West wanted to avoid peace and they created a massacre.

Darfur

Another ‘genocide’ lie. The African Union says only 1,500 died in 2008. Save Darfur Coalition became just a multimillion dollar ad campaign projecting 400,000 as dead in a black vs Arab genocide.

The scenario wad equated to mean US and IC action was warranted. It was another case of false flag to give the excuse for the US and Allies to enter these nations. Apart from the hype generated by the Save Darfur camp there is no evidence of any mass killings.

In the US, advertisers are under no obligation to tell the truth! But then who cares about truth so long as the objective is realised. Susan Rice in her own words:

The Responsibility to Protect or, as it has come to be known, R2P represents an important step forward in the long historical struggle to save lives and guard the wellbeing of people endangered by conflict.

It holds that states have responsibilities as well as interests and that states have particularly vital duties to shield their own populations from the depraved and the murderous. This approach is bold. It is important. And the United States welcomes it.

The Responsibility to Protect is rooted in the principle that states have a fundamental responsibility to protect their populations from such atrocities as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.

It holds that other states, in turn, have a corollary responsibility to assist, if a state cannot meet its fundamental responsibility to its citizens or to take collective action, if a state will not meet that fundamental responsibility.

Syria

The case against Syria was laid out no different to the lies created to invade Iraq. It questions the use of a UN and a Secretary General that simply sits and does nothing as military aggression in violation of international laws take place in particular when even the American public are now against such actions.

War ships are being sent, lobbying and arm-twisting for support are taking shape, underground arms supplies, training Islamic mercenaries are taking place and we would like to know what Syria has done to the US to declare war?

It was WMD for Iraq and for Syria the accusation is chemical weapons.

This is the country accusing another when it did not blink to use atomic bomb twice on Japan, did not hesitate to use Agent Orange and napalm in Vietnam killing three million and dropped scores of DU and white phosphorous on Iraq. Give us a break – no wonder 50,000 US troops have attempted to commit suicide unable to live up to the lies taking place.

Iraq

* US, UK and Australia invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003 using lies (WMD was the excuse).

* Iraq was already suffering 12 years of sanctions which had killed 0.2m Iraqis in the Gulf War and 1.7m Iraqis as a result of war-sanctions. US Secretary of State said ‘it was worth it’ when told of scores of infant deaths.

* 1990-2011 Iraqi deaths from violence/violently imposed deprivation is said to total 4.6m.

* 1.2m under 5 year old infants died under US sanction 1990-2003, 0.8m, under 5 year old infants died through 2003-2011. Overall 2million deaths between 1990-2011, 90% avoidable and due to violations by the US alliance violating Geneva Conventions and UN Genocide Convention.

Just Foreign Policy estimates 1.5m Iraqi deaths since US-NATO invasion in 2003. (Just Foreign Policy: justforeignpolicy.org/iraq).

Mercenaries

Over 4,480 Americans have died in the Iraq war while 6,000 US veterans have committed suicide and about 50,000 have attempted to commit suicide since 2001 ( See Rob Hotakainin, The News Tribune, May 26, 2011(thenewstribune.com) and Gideon Polya, ‘One million Americans die preventably annually in USA’, Countercurrents, February 18, 2012 (countercurrents.org/polya).

The US is a master of creating ‘independent actors’ for peace whereas in reality they are the very proxies of the US. Almost always US finds a way of ensuring they include their allies by making reference to ‘independent third parties’ that invariably are allies of the US.

Judging by the trends of things, US will next suggest a ‘transitional governing body’ with full executive powers – they did for Iraq and Libya. Every word and line used are just identical “disarming, demobilisation, reintegration of armed groups” has been used even for Sri Lanka.

“Effective steps to ensure that vulnerable groups are protected and immediate action is taken to address humanitarian issues in areas of need” – these lines are now etched in memory. They were all repeated in the above countries. In the case in Bosnia why did the US supply massive arms transfers to Bosnian-Muslims who were using the ‘safe areas’? Is that no different to the manner that the US and allies using Gulf States are arming Syrian rebels? Were these same mercenaries not used in Syria, Libya, Bosnia, Kosovo and have now been re-christened as ISIS?

Bogus negotiations

So what is the game the US and Allies are playing?

When will they stop putting together minority and opposition groups, helping them in the name of democracy by arming and financing them and instructing them to cause civil unrest and violence, use media to promote them and showcase the government in bad light.

Use UN and officials to issue statements, spread rumours, back up with reports by human rights groups and others and create a scenario that democracy is being challenged by dictators and innocent people are falling victims, show a few victims and inflate figures using corporate media, do a number with some TV debates, build up tempo to a level where together the UN, the US led international community must intervene between the dictator Government and the ‘sole legitimate representative’ of the people.

Then arrange a few bogus negotiations and ceasefires, create a few false flag events, use media again to project genocide and crimes against humanity scenario about to unfold, demand embargo and sanctions. send special forces, apply combined joint task force doctrine, hunt down regime officials and send them to The Hague, declare victory for the International Community, set up military bases, bring in all the usual culprits – the corporations and they take over the resources of that country. Repeated to perfection and successful still and masses have fallen lock, stock and barrel.

Human shields

With all these lies at the background we come to Sri Lanka, where the US now says that the international community failed to save civilians during the last stage of the war. What was their plan?

Did the US plan to tell the GOSL to stop shooting, ask the UN staff to go into the 3.9 sq.mile area where they would be received by a relieved LTTE and does the US expect to hold the hands of civilians and take each one of the 300,000 that the SL troops saved while LTTE is happy to watch them leave? Exactly how many of these 300,000 were actually civilians and what if even the LTTE joined as civilians? When the troops eventually are told to resume they may have found the entire 3.9sq.mile empty because the IC has moved everyone to safety!

Just imagine the stupidity of the scenario?

* If the LTTE planned to let the people go would they take them in the first place?

* If the UN knew that the people were being taken as far back as 2008 was the UN complicit no different to how US ignored the warnings on Rwanda?

* Is the IC so naïve to think that the world’s worst terrorist movement would simply watch until some foreigners come and take away their human shields, hostages and labour as well as civilian recruits? This is no Hollywood movie. So let’s not kid ourselves. A battle was fought and we cannot help if LTTE fought like cowards in the end much to the exasperation of their sponsors. They should have faced the army bravely and won without hiding and firing from among civilians compromising their lives as well.

As for the US delegation that states that the IC failed in Sri Lanka, all we can say is that 1.5 million Iraqis would have been saved if US hadn’t invaded Iraq – we would like to know what UN Secretary General has to say about this.