Reality Check: What you’re not supposed to think about
“655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?”
-Rosie O’Donnell from The View comparing U.S. activities with Islamic terrorism
Since Rosie O’Donnell has recently “got quit” from her job on The View (or rather, had her pre-existing plans for departure greatly accelerated) because of uttering this sentence, it is worth taking a second to explore the voracity of Rosie’s statement.
If we take the total confirmed attacks by Al Queda against the West (broadly understood) we have 5 acts of terrorism in total. The 1993 WTC Bombing which killed 6. The 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole which killed 17. The September 11th attacks which killed 2974. The 2004 Madrid bombings which killed 191. And, lastly, the 2005 bombings in London, England which killed 52.
So, Al Qaeda has claimed a total of 3240 fatalities in the West.
Now America’s activities abroad are far too numerous to either delineate or to quantify, so, for simplicity’s sake, let’s limit it only to US involvement in the country of Iraq since the enactment of UN resolution 667 in 1990 up to the present.
The Gulf War and the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq throughout the 90s up until 2003 killed a total of approximately 1,000,000 (source). And, from 2003 up until the present, according to the best and most thorough statistical project undertaken the U.S. has killed approximately 651,000 in the Iraq War.
So, the U.S. has claimed a total of 1,651,000 (approximately — interesting how we don’t bother to count their fatalities isn’t it?).
Keep in mind this figure pertains only to the fatalities since 1990 and that this pertains only to fatalities the U.S. caused in the country of Iraq. We could have just as easily included U.S. involvement in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Iran, Lebanon, Somalia, South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, and a host of other countries which undoubtedly would have made the data more interesting, but I think this makes the point.
Let us put this into perspective another way. If a U.S. politician stood up and said that he’d kill 100 Iraqis for every one U.S. soldier killed, he would be considered a moderate since the U.S. has killed on average over 500 Iraqis for every one Westerner killed by Al Qaeda.
Now this isn’t intended to get into a debate over motivation or reasons for engaging in these horrible killings. Everybody has reasons for the things they do and anybody can justify their actions (at least to themselves). But, objectively, it is more than obvious that Rosie O’Donnell statement was actually conservative and an underestimation.
But, there are some things we (the people who are hated for our freedoms) are not supposed to think about and this, apparently, is one of them.
from: http://paulitics.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/reality-check-what-youre-not-supposed-to-think-about/
Postato in: Stati Uniti d'America, Temi Globali, Guerra e Pace, Terrorismo e Terrorismi | Messo il tag: Afghanistan, alessio, alessio in asia, America, ASIA, freedom, guerra, irak, Iran, Iraq, morti, pace, Politica, Stati Uniti, terrorism, terrorismo, us, USA
I read your comment and I see some of your points, but it is not the US killing those citizens. Yes, American actions are causing them, but they still aren’t doing it directly – it’d be like blaming someone who sells firearms for all the murders committed by guns purchased from that area.
Well, it is a fact that U.S. DIRECTLY supported terrorists and dictators all around the world (Saddam Hussein when was gazing people, dozens of Sout American dictators, anti-cuban terrorists as Posada Carriles). But anyway, making wars all around the world for decades is not killing people directly?
When they were bombing Vietnam from B-52 ariplanes they were not killing people?
When they were using Orange Agent they were not killing people? (no… actually Orange Agent is still killing people and causing the birth of malformed children…), and, just reporting the article above, the U.S. has claimed a total of 1,651,000 (approximately — interesting how we don’t bother to count their fatalities isn’t it?).
Keep in mind this figure pertains only to the fatalities since 1990 and that this pertains only to fatalities the U.S. caused in the country of Iraq. We could have just as easily included U.S. involvement in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Iran, Lebanon, Somalia, South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, and a host of other countries which undoubtedly would have made the data more interesting, but I think this makes the point.
So , well, I don’t know if these several million people have been killed directly or indirectly by the US Army, but… well… this is maybe not the main point.
I make no defense of the casualties caused in ‘Nam, or any other engagement that the US military has been involved in, and woukd have no qualm about them being used in statistics, for the post you made you’re using casualties that were physically killed by others, not Americans. There’s a difference between killing (as in, setting off a bomb) and a death happening as a result of an action (indirectly).
http://ale1980italy.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/greenspan-admits-iraq-was-about-oil-as-deaths-put-at-12-million-people/