War Casualties

© MMX V.1.0.3
by Morley Evans

Almost every night the telescreen reports something about a Canadian soldier who has been killed in Afghanistan or we see a funeral in Canada, or a flag-draped casket being loaded to be returned home. There is never any mention of Afghans who have been killed. We, Canadians, get even less reportage about Iraq because we have no troops there. But it is the same story. Unlike Canada's news industry, which wallows in war, the American news industry downplays American casualties. The Pentagon learned its lesson in Vietnam when the news reported American boys coming home in body bags every night. No more of that.

What does the media tell us about Afghans and Iraqis who have been killed or wounded or turned into refugees after their lives were destroyed? They tell us nothing. Canadians and Americans would be better off tuning in to Izvestia and Pravda than watching their own media or reading their own newspapers. One has to hunt to get the picture. Here is a glimpse of the carnage.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom": Total Coalition Military Fatalities 4715 since 2003.

"Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan": Total Coalition Military Fatalities 1776 since 2001.

Estimating the losses of Iraqis and Afghans is more difficult. We don't bother to count them. "They are just dogs," said one U.S. veteran. But the totals are staggering. Without any difficulty and with no risk of exaggeration, one can say that hundreds of thousands have been killed, maimed, dispossessed, made homeless orphans or turned into refugees after their lives were destroyed along with their countries. How did these people live together for centuries with nothing like this happening before?

We can conclude that everything that has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan is directly due to what we have done in the last ten to twenty years. Of course we never stop. We have been busy in the region since before the First World War. Let's not forget Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and North Africa. We are now doing the same thing to Pakistan as we are doing to Afghanistan. We are planning to do the same thing to Iran. Who will be next? Somebody will be next. Somebody is always next. We have been in this business for centuries.

Death and destruction is what we do. It is what we are good at. What about the "sectarian violence"? What we do well is turn one group against another so they do some of our killing for us. Then we can blame them for their moral failure and sanctimoniously extol the sacrifices we have made to help them. That is what we do best. It is our trademark.

We are so good. Even our enemies believe our lies. Then, after they have been smashed, they become our allies and join us as we do it to someone else so we can continue spreading peace, justice, democracy, human rights, equality and freedom. (We don't often call ourselves Christians anymore. Religion, as everyone knows, causes hatred and war.)

We are the most deceived people in history. We are worse than any of our enemies ever were. Take a good long look in the mirror.

http://www.icasualties.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/09/07/afghanistan-civilian-deaths-airstrikes
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/woundedplatoon/