Fresh UK attack on US Iraq policy

[Allegra]

BBC NEWS | UK | Fresh UK attack on US Iraq policy

'A second key British general has criticised US post-war policy in Iraq.

Maj Gen Tim Cross, who was the most senior UK officer involved in post-war planning, told the Sunday Mirror US policy was "fatally flawed". His comments came after Gen Sir Mike Jackson, head of the Army during the invasion, told the Daily Telegraph US policy was "intellectually bankrupt".'

[Curt Chiarelli]

Yes, the phrase, "intellectually bankrupt" perfectly sums up U.S. policy for, not only the war itself, but the reconstruction of Iraq.

[dormouse]

Fat lot of use it is to first carry out the policies and then object when it's too late.

[Curt Chiarelli]

Yes, such criticism is a case of too little, too late.

And yet, even in light of so much new damning evidence against Bush, Blair and his cabal of war criminals, there are still many Americans of questionable intellect and even more corrupt ethics who march in step to the steady beat of The Drummer . . . .

Here's one repulsive example of many that pollute our nation's media. This article is - as author Harlan Ellison would no doubt describe it - "spring-loaded vomit". You have been warned :

US Military Intervention Into Iraq Has Actually Saved Thousands of Lives

By Don Polson

09/07/07

Red Bluff Daily News

President Bush saved the lives of almost 300,000 Iraqis, mostly children! How? Read on.

Since the whole issue of "dead Iraqis" has become part of the latest permutation of the "Bush lied, people died" tripe, my July 30, 2005, 'News and Views' is particularly relevant. At that time, a British medical journal, The Lancet, was prominently quoted by war opponents because it published the calculations of scholars (anti-war, of course) from Johns Hopkins University, estimating Iraqi civilian deaths.

The "100,000 civilians died" myth was thus born, based on shabby methodology that even I could poke holes in. You see, their actual figure of "98,000 extra deaths in the post-invasion period (through July, 2005)" was arrived at - you're not going to believe this - by surveying Iraqis for anecdotal (word of mouth) reports.

I translated their formula so readers could see that they were "95 percent confident" that between 8,000 and 194,000 civilians died during that period. I wrote "This pathetic attempt at quantification is what passes for objective fact to those on the left. Iraq's own Health Ministry put civilian fatalities at less than 4,000. The Project on Defense Alternatives estimated 11,000 to 15,000 Iraqis were killed in the war, only 3,200 to 4,300 of those being civilians."

The Iraq body count reported as many as 25,000 civilian deaths through that July. They used news media reports that were tallied by anti-war organizations with an obvious bias to maximize the deaths. Moreover, their own analysis said that U.S.-led forces accounted for a little more than one-third of the deaths, with crime/terrorism/insurgent activities (Iraqi-on-Iraqi) accounting for the rest.

I just checked the latest report at the iraqbodycount.org website and, through July 17 this year, they total between 71,302 and 77,852 "reported civilian deaths resulting from the US-led military intervention in Iraq" which by now is overwhelmingly "Iraqi-on-Iraqi." So, less than 80,000 through July 17 - remember that as you read on.

I then wrote, "A much larger point is the utter hypocrisy of the anti-war crowd. In the 12 years of sanctions, imposed by the U.N. to pressure Saddam on weapons compliance, up to one million Iraqi civilians died, many of them infants. That figures out to about 83,000 dead per year while Saddam used money from approved oil sales to build palaces and starve his people (of food and medicine).

"Can the anti-war left show how they expressed appropriate outrage, at the time, over the hundreds of thousands of deaths Saddam caused? I think not!"

In light of all this, I say with 100 percent confidence, that President Bush, by removing Saddam and thereby ending the sanctions, is responsible for almost 300,000 more Iraqis being alive, mostly children, than would have been under Saddam. Do the math! And, quit with the Bush-bashing, "sophomoric, disingenuous" cheapshots.

Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988, is a past president of the Tehama County Association of Realtors and is a licensed Realtor. His column runs Monday. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com

[Allegra]

Oh dear, if I didn’t see Curt’s warning, I’d sincerely believe the first paragraph is the opening bar of a piece of satire. It did turn my stomach badly and sent me goose pimples all the way till the last word – ‘And, quit with the Bush-bashing, "sophomoric, disingenuous" cheapshots.’ To label this piece of junk ‘sophomoric, disingenuous cheapshots’ would be a massive compliment! (I wonder how much he gets paid for this.)


For reference:

Iraqi Death Toll Exceeds 600,000, Study Estimates - WSJ.com

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL241131.htm

Mind you, the statistics in the reports are outdated.

[Curt Chiarelli]

Yes, the most recent data indicates that the death toll now stands at 1,032,938 Iraqi civilians and millions more displaced. This statistic can be found here:

Just Foreign Policy - Iraqi Death Estimate

[Allegra]

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