Logic Times
Original commentary by Aslan, 11/12/04
Updated commentary by Aslan, 7/22/06, 11:45pm. Comments (17)
7/22/06
There are those who believe the war in Iraq to be a strategic error in the Middle East, an inflammatory unilateral action that cultivates terror rather quells it. This position is worthy of some respect, for although it employs flawed logic and ignores the reality on the ground, it is at least lucid and acknowledges, by way of debating strategy, the validity of the War on Terror.
Then there are those who claim to be "anti-war." Everyone has encountered the diverse members of this species from time to time: the resuscitated 60s tie-dye liberal, the frantic uninformed mother of teenage boys anticipating the draft, the WWJB (Who Would Jesus Bomb?) Christian, the Michael Moore acolyte convinced of Bush greed and evil. The bedrock belief of this colorful group is that American military might is grinding up the citizenry of Iraq for motives of profit, revenge and/or imperialism.
How many civilians have died since the onset of the war in Iraq? There are varying reports, but the consensus appears to be around 30,000 people, a number recently referenced by President Bush (here). An excellent argument can be made that these numbers are inflated (see The Civilian Casualty Fable), however, for the purpose of debate, let us grant this claim and assign validity to the running tally kept on iraqbodycount.org:
(Updated 7/22/06)
What conclusion can one draw from this? That these protestors are pacifists, people of conscience opposed to all military conflict? That they are overwhelmed by the unique suffering and death caused by modern American imperialism? Or that these are decent people, simply horrified by man's inhumanity to man?
There certainly are a few classic pacifists sprinkled into this or any anti-war movement, but they are the rare exception rather than the rule. The evidence supports only one conclusion: it is not the death and suffering of innocents that is objectionable to these protestors, only the death and suffering caused by American policy. These people protest America, not war.
Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq on July 16, 1979 and was deposed in April of 2003. Over that twenty-four year period, Saddam Hussein killed between 600,000 and 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, was responsible for the deaths of between 250,000 and 550,000 Iraqi military personnel and over 700,000 Iranians and Kuwaitis (here and here). Utilizing only the Iraqi civilian numbers, this is an average of between 25,260 and 42,108 people a year, or between 2105 and 3509 Iraqi citizens a month. The United States toppled Saddam Hussein forty months ago now. If Saddam had remained in power for those 40 months, between 84,200 and 140,360 Iraqis would have died – children starved in prisons, dissidents fed through industrial shredders, women strangled after visits to rape rooms all to be eventually reunited in remote mass graves. Using the maximum credible figures available:
The protestors above are indicted by their selective regard for death in our world and Iraq in particular. Those wielding signs did not stir themselves as Saddam harvested the boldest and brightest of Iraq for 24 years. The plight of the Sudanese or those in East Timor is met with general disinterest. Apparently one Iraqi child inadvertently killed by American soldiers risking life and limb to bring liberty to an oppressed people is more horrifying that hundreds of Sudanese children liquidated in Darfur.
The anti-war movement views Iraqi civilians deaths as grist for the anti-American mill. Dead Sudanese are a statistic. Dead Iraqis before the war are a memory. Dead civilians in Iraq today are an exhilarating opportunity for the socialist left to undermine American liberty, power and society. This fuzzy math cannot stand. Logic Times will keep, from this day forward, the Iraq Survival Count.
Today, as many as one hundred one thousand Iraqis are alive (and free and voting) because of American policy. I guess that does not interest the anti-war crowd.
Copyright © 2004-2006 Dan Hallagan. All Rights Reserved.