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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/ferner05112007.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/ferner05112007.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>May 11,
2007<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>Wrecking Iraq:
One Million Dead, 2 Million Wounded, 3 Million Displaced<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Collateral
Genocide</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By
MIKE FERNER<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>wo elements are necessary to commit the crime
of genocide: <br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>1) the mental element, meaning intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, and <br><br>
<dd>2) the physical element, which includes any of the following: killing
or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the
group's physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures
intended to prevent births; or forcibly transferring children to another
group. <br><br>
</dl>Considering that such clear language comes from a UN treaty which is
legally binding on our country, things could start getting a little
worrisome -- especially when you realize that since our government
declared economic and military warfare on Iraq we've killed well over one
million people, fast approaching two.<br><br>
This summer will be one year since researchers from Johns Hopkins
University collected data for a study which concluded 655,000 additional
deaths were caused by the military war, and things have only gotten worse
since then. Then consider that the economic war killed an additional
500,000 Iraqi kids under the age of five during only the first seven
years of sanctions which were in force for a dozen years, according to a
1999 U.N. report. <br><br>
Based on the Johns Hopkins estimate of Iraqis killed in the war, one
could conservatively estimate that another 2.6 million people have been
wounded. The U.N. estimates that between 1.5 million and 2 million Iraqis
are now "internally displaced" by the fighting and roughly the
same number have fled their country, including disproportionate numbers
of doctors and other professionals. <br><br>
If you are sitting down and possess a healthy imagination, try conjuring
up similar conditions here in our land. Start with the fact that few
people buy bottled water and what comes out of the tap is guaranteed to
at least make you sick if not kill you Three times as many of our fellow
citizens are out of work as during the Great Depression On a good day we
have three or four hours of electricity to preserve food or cool the
110-degree heat No proper hospitals or rehab clinics exist to help the
wounded become productive members of society Roads are a mess Reports of
birth defects from exposure to depleted uranium have begun surfacing
around the country. Reflect for a minute on the grief brought by a single
loved one's death. Then open your heart to the reality of life if we
suffered casualties comparable to those endured by the people of Iraq.
<br><br>
In the former cities of Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Seattle, Milwaukee, Fort
Worth, Baltimore, San Francisco, Dallas and Philadelphia every single
person is dead. In Vermont, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada,
Kansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Oregon, South Carolina and Colorado every
single person is wounded. <br><br>
The entire populations of Ohio and New Jersey are homeless, surviving
with friends, relatives or under bridges as they can. The entire
populations of Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky have fled to Canada or
Mexico. Over the past three years, one in four U.S. doctors has left the
country. Last year alone 3,000 doctors were kidnapped and 800 killed. In
short, nobody "out there" is coming to save us. <br><br>
We are in hell. <br><br>
Of course our government didn't intend</i> to commit genocide, it just
sort of happened. The Iraqis kept getting in the way while we were trying
to complete the mission. Mistakes were made as we were building
democracy, but surely no genocide was intended. After all, we are the
international deciders of what is and what isn't genocide, and we know
full well that intent is a requirement. <br><br>
It was only "collateral genocide" and lord knows we did our
very best to avoid it.</i> <br><br>
Mike Ferner</b> is an Ohio writer. His book, "Inside the Red Zone: A
Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq" is available on his website
<a href="http://www.mikeferner.org/">www.mikeferner.org</a> <br><br>
<br><br>
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