Obama, McCain, Iraqi Genocide & Afghan Genocide

"Qana" by Gideon Polya

Obama promises to get out of Iraq (1990-2008 excess deaths 4 million) but to continue in Afghanistan (2001-2008 excess deaths 3-6 million). McCain will continue both holocausts and possibly more.

Americans may well be pleased with the recent enthusiastic reception of Barack Obama in Europe. However they need to know what they are actually voting for – either 50% less killing (if a President Obama does get out of Occupied Iraq but not Occupied Afghanistan ) or possibly 100% more killing (if a President McCain decides to devastate Iran as well as continuing the Iraqi and Afghan Holocausts).

I have illustrated this article with my huge anti-war painting "Qana" (based upon Picasso's "Guernica" but relating to the Israeli destruction of the Southern Lebanese town of Qana - for the second time - in mid-2006) (for an EXPANDABLE IMAGE and detailed discussion of the painting see "Picasso, Guernica, Qana & the Da Vinci Code": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/9547/26/ ).

Read William Blum's "Rogue State" – a succinct account of US subverting, terrorizing, bombing, invading , occupying and devastating countries on 4 continents over the last 6 decades - and you will conclude that it is high time America stopped bombing, invading, occupying and devastating other countries.

Indeed it is useful to put NUMBERS to this devastation. Avoidable mortality (excess mortality, avoidable death, excess death, death that should not have happened) is the difference between ACTUAL deaths in a county and the deaths EXPECTED for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics. Avoidable mortality can be estimated for every county in the world for the period 1950-2005 using data from the UN Population Division (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) and expressed as a percentage of the 2005 population of each country (see "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).

The 1950-2005 avoidable mortality has been determined for the US and for every country occupied at some time by the US in the post-1945 era (but excluding Germany and Japan) and expressed as a percentage (%) of the 2005 population (* indicates another major occupier; m = million): US [8.455m/300.038m = 2.8%] - Afghanistan* [16.609m/25.971m = 64.0%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Dominican Republic [0.806m/8.998m = 9.0%], Federated States of Micronesia [0.016m/0.111m = 14.4%], Greece* [0.027m/10.978m = 0.2%], Grenada* [0.018m/0.121m = 14.9%], Guam [0.005m/0.168m = 3.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Iraq* [5.283m/26.555m = 19.9%], Korea* [7.958m/71.058m = 11.2%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Panama [0.172m/3.235m = 5.3%], Philippines [9.080m/82.809m = 11.0%], Puerto Rico [0.039m/3.915m = 1.0%], Somalia* [5.568m/10.742m = 51.8%], US Virgin Islands [0.003m/0.113m = 2.4%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], total = 82.193m/357.651m = 23.0% .

One can estimate from such data that avoidable deaths associated with post-1950 US Asian wars now total 25 million, this being commensurate with the deaths associated with the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe in World War 2.

One can estimate avoidable deaths in Iraq (1990-2008) and Afghanistan (2001-2008) associated with US violence using data from the medical literature and from the UN Population Division (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) - avoidable deaths total 4 million and 3-6 million, respectively.

Here is a quicker estimation for Afghanistan: consult UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan.html ) and you will discover that 327,000 under-5 year old infants die each year in US-NATO-Australia-occupied Occupied Afghanistan; consult WHO (see: http://www.who.int/countries/en/ ) and you will find that the occupiers only permit a annual total medical expenditure of $26 per person as compared to $6,350 in the US (this being in gross violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ).

(a) Post-invasion under-5 infant deaths: in October 2001-August 2008 (83/12 years) under-5 infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan would have totalled 0.327 million per year x 83/12 years = 2.26 million.

(b) Post-invasion non-violent excess deaths: for impoverished Third World countries, non-violent excess deaths (avoidable deaths due to deprivation) are about 1.43 times the under-5 infant deaths (see "Layperson's guide to counting Iraq deaths": http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/ ); non-violent excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan would have totalled 2.26 million x 1.43 = 3.23 million.

(c) Post-invasion violent excess deaths: the US has a policy, enunciated by General Franks in Iraq, of " we don't do body counts"; however in Occupied Iraq post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths have been about equal (about 1 million each; see below); accordingly we can estimate about 3 million violent post-invasion excess deaths i.e. post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan total 3-6 million.

As reported by the BRussells Tribunal (see: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Messages190308.htm#polya ), the carnage in Occupied Iraq as of March 2008 was as follows: "Taking authoritative estimates (c) and (d) for 5-year violent deaths of 0.91 million and 1.36 million, respectively, and estimates of 5-year non-violent excess deaths of 0.77 - 0.87 million, we can estimate that post-invasion violent plus non-violent excess deaths in Occupied Iraq will total 1.7 - 2.2 million as of March 2008. In addition one can estimate 1.7 million Sanctions excess deaths (1990-2003), 1.2 million under-5 infant deaths under Sanctions, 0.2 million Iraqi Gulf War deaths, 0.6 million post-invasion infant deaths (UNICEF) and 4.5 million Iraqi refugees (UNHCR). This is an Iraqi Holocaust and an Iraqi Genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention. "

Application of similar principles yields the following summation (see a detailed exposition here: http://www.liberalati.com/?q=node/261 ) for just PART of the US Empire stretching from Occupied Haiti and Occupied Somalia to Occupied Afghanistan and robot-bombed Waziristan in Pakistan : "Using estimates from the UN Population Division, UNICEF and top US medical epidemiologists, I have been "bearing witness" and reporting the continuing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide - post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 2 million, and 3-6 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; refugees totalling 7 million, 4.5 million and 4 million, respectively) (for the latest details and documentation see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/19915/42/ ; http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Messages190308.htm#polya ; http://www.countercurrents.org/polya080208.htm )".

Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) states: "In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

"Intent to mass murder" can be assessed either through "stated intent to mass murder" or through the ACTUALITY of "sustained de facto mass murder". The Iraqi Holocaust (4 million dead, 4.5 million refugees) is an Iraqi Genocide as perceived by no less than outstanding conservative US economist (Father of Reaganomics) , academic, editor and author Dr Paul Craig Roberts (see: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10162007.html ). The Afghan Holocaust (3-6 million 2001-2008 excess deaths, 4 million refugees) is similarly an Afghan Genocide.

The Nazis wiped my family from the face of Europe. Like other decent folk I believe that the core moral messages of the Jewish Holocaust (6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and the Western theatre World War 2 Holocaust in general (30 million Slav, Jewish and Roma dead) are "zero tolerance for racism" and "never again to anyone" – core messages grossly violated by the Bush-ites like McCain and the neo-Bush-ites like Obama who both back invasion, occupation and sustained mass murder in non-European lands.

Shame on Obama who won't even defend his own. Thus the only Obama criticism of the British in Kenya I have found is that his grandfather was called "boy" by his British masters – whereas the shocking 1950s reality involved the following: "1944, Jomo Kenyatta started the independence movement; 1952-1960, Mau Mau Emergency, Kikuyu Mau Mau insurgency against the British, 0.3 million Kikuyu held in concentration camps, 1 million held in "enclosed villages", 0.1 million were either killed or otherwise died in custody, horrendous British atrocities, Kenyatta imprisoned (1952-1960 excess mortality 1.1 million); 1963, independence with Kenyatta as leader but the UK retained a military base in Mombasa;" (consult my summary in Chapter 7, "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ).

Decent people around the world are hoping that Obama wins because less mass murder is better than more mass murder. But Americans should have no illusions about who and what they are voting for.

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