18 MARCH 2006 UPDATE - Human and economic cost of the Iraq & Afghan Wars (Third Anniversary of Invasion of Iraq)

THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTED STATISTICS are presented on the THIRD ANNIVERSARY of the US-led Coalition INVASION OF IRAQ (18 March 2003).

IN SUMMARY, the post-invasion war-related avoidable mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan and globally totals 2.7 MILLION and the economic cost to the US of the Iraq War has been expertly estimated at US$1-2 TRILLION.

MARCH 2006 – the LATEST UN FIGURES (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/) indicate that the post-invasion avoidable mortality (excess mortality, man-made mortality) is 0.5 MILLION (US-occupied Iraq) and 1.8 MILLION (US-occupied Afghanistan); the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality totals 0.4 MILLION and 1.4 MILLION, respectively.

MARCH 2006 - the LATEST UNICEF FIGURES (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html) indicate that 0.5 MILLION under-5 year old infants die in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan annually (1,300 daily and 90% avoidably) due to NON-PROVISION by the Occupying UK-US-led Coalition of the life-sustaining requisites demanded of Occupiers by the Geneva Conventions (passive genocide) (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm).

MARCH 2006 - the LATEST UN OFFICE FOR DRUGS & CRIME (UNODC) FIGURES (see: http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_ex_summary.pdf) indicate that the post-2001 global opiate drug-related deaths total 0.4 MILLION due to restoration by the US-led Coalition of the globally-dominant Afghan opium industry destroyed by the Taliban in 2000/2001; in the major “White”, Anglo-Celtic countries the post-2001 opiate drug deaths total about 1,200 (Scotland), 1,600 (Australia), 3,000 (Canada), 3,200 (UK) and 50,000 (US) (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-polya281005.htm).

MARCH 2006 - the Coalition leaders are responsible for an avoidable post-invasion death toll of at least 2.7 MILLION including a post-invasion avoidable mortality in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories (2.3 MILLION) and post-2001 global opioid drug deaths (0.4 MILLION); these estimates IGNORE the global economic impact of the war and increased oil prices on the largely Third World post-2001 global avoidable mortality and under-5 infant mortality that total 64 MILLION and 42 MILLION, respectively (16.0 MILLION and 10.6 MILLION annually and about 44,000 and 29,000 daily, respectively) (see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/).

MARCH 2006 – the International Criminal Court (ICC) has now stopped dealing with the crimes of the late Slobodan Milosevic (complicity in 0.2 MILLION deaths) but REFUSES to deal with the war crimes of the Coalition leadership (currently totaling 2.7 MILLION avoidable deaths) (see FORMAL COMPLAINT TO ICC in MWC News: http://www.mwcnews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3087&Itemid=145).

MARCH 2006 – over 2,300 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 17,400 wounded - and the ECONOMIC COST to the US of of the Iraq War has been estimated by US 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes at between US$1 TRILLION and US$2 TRILLION (see: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/263428_iraq1ed.asp).