Exchange with Graham Watson MEP, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament

An e-mail exchange with Graham Watson MEP, Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar and Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament

Dear Graham,

I hope all is well.

Please find below an e-mail I sent to your colleagues Edward Davey and Nick Clegg.

I kindly invite you too to highlight the human cost of the Iraq war.

Thank you.

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London

email to Liberal Democrats MPs Edward Davey and Nick Clegg RE: Iraq war death toll

Graham Watson's reply:

Dear Gabriele Zamparini

Thank you for copying me in on your email to Edward Davey and Nick Clegg. You may be interested to read a speech I made in the EP on Iraq. It can be found at: [link]

Yours sincerely

Graham Watson MEP

My reply to Graham Watson MEP:

Dear Graham Watson MEP,

Thank you for your reply and for sending the link to the speech you gave on Wednesday, 16 November 2005 at the European Parliament at Strasbourg.

You said then: “Yet after two years and eight months of war, the deaths of countless Iraqis and over 2 000 coalition troops, it is clear that life in Iraq is little better than before.”

Yes, “little better” indeed.

Let’s remember that the “before” was when the UN, under the US and UK pressure, imposed an embargo to Iraq, that helped destroyed the country and caused the death of a terrifying number of innocent people. One million? Two millions? Will we ever know? Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (1997-98) said: “I had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that had effectively killed well over a million individuals, children and adults.” After thirty-four years with the United Nations, he resigned in protest over the effects of the embargo on the civilian population. Hans Von Sponeck, who had succeeded Denis Halliday as UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (1998-2000), resigned on February 13, 2000. He asked: “How long should the civilian population of Iraq be exposed to such punishment for something they have never done?” Like Halliday, he had been with the United Nations for more than thirty years. [Source: The New Rulers of the World, by John Pilger, Verso, 2002]

Then came the US+UK war of aggression, illegal under the UN Charter – as recognised by the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan - and called at Nuremberg in 1945 the supreme international crime: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." - Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals - Nuremberg, Germany 1946

I was glad to read in the second part of your speech, the first of your three concerns: “First, the Pentagon’s acknowledgement a few hours ago that the US used phosphorous incendiary devices in Fallujah. The European Union must demand a UN inquiry into the use of these banned weapons.” This was in November 2005. Please, may I ask you if the European Union demanded that UN inquiry?

Most importantly, I would kindly like to have your attention on one point. Once again, as the media watch FAIR wrote a few weeks ago: "There is no more important question about the Iraq War than the question of how many Iraqis have died. It is impossible to truly evaluate the war or discuss where to go from here without knowing the human cost of the war, and that cost has overwhelmingly been borne by Iraqis."

Please, it would be possible for the European Parliament to ask for an investigation on the human cost of the Iraq war?

Thank you again for your time and all you’ll be able to do on this issue.

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London

P.S. Useful resources:

Iraq: the Human Cost

Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates

ORB Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy

What is the real death toll in Iraq?

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

The colonel’s numbers

The Institute for National Strategic Studies - a policy research and strategic gaming organization within National Defense University serving the U.S. Department of Defense, its components, and interagency partners - published a report called “Choosing War: The Decision to Invade Iraq and Its Aftermath” REPORT - PDF LINK

Written by Joseph Collins, a retired colonel and former senior adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, the report reads:

Iraqi civilian deaths—mostly at the hands of other Iraqis—may number as high as 82,000.

In the Notes section, Note 1 reads:

(…) Iraq civilian casualties are hardest to track; estimates run from 38,000 to over 600,000. Most sources tied to actual incident-related counts show a maximum of 82,000. (…)

The report doesn’t say it so let’s ask the colonel: Where does that number - 82,000 - come from?

Waiting for the colonel’s answer, it’s reasonable to assume that number comes from Iraq Body Count (IBC) at the time the report was written. I wonder if even the “mostly at the hands of other Iraqis” comes from IBC’s data.

That Note 1 also reads: “The U.S. Government does not keep statistics on these losses, which is a significant mistake.”

The colonel is playing naïve now: where is the mistake if the anti-war movement can so easily be used by the War Party?

Mass Graves in Iraq. Whose mass graves are these?

Finally the notorious Iraqi mass graves are being unearthed. There is only one problem: they are the product of Liberated Iraq

Az-Zaman (London; Iraq): Largest mass grave found in Mahmoudiya – Iraqis were shocked yesterday by the discovery of the largest mass grave in their modern history, with 4,020 bodies of mostly women, youth and men from Mahmoudiya and its surroundings. Local residents said the bodies belonged to victims of kidnappings and executions carried out by (Shiite) al-Mahdi Army, Badr, and al-Dawa militias in 2005 and 2006.

Please read the full article here. It seems this is just the beginning; not only Oil in New Iraq's underground.

Have you ever seen such a Liberation?

By the way, someone should now tell Iraq Body Count to update their counter. The last time I checked it displayed 90,000 - more or less, Bush would say.

***

WATCH ALSO THIS VIDEO: Baghdad's killing fields: In the second of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's series of three films he visits Baghdad's killings fields on the edge of Sadr City. The scene of thousands of sectarian murders over the last three years, it is a desolate and evil place: 'Only the killers and the killed ever come here' says Abdul-Ahad. Here in the thousands of unmarked graves lie the victims of the Shia militia gangs

***

P.S. Please read and spread the info below

Iraq: the Human Cost

Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates

ORB Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy

What is the real death toll in Iraq?

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

email to Liberal Democrats MPs Edward Davey and Nick Clegg RE: Iraq war death toll

Dear Edward Davey MP,
Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary

CC Dear Nick Clegg MP,

Thank you for your recent comments on the Iraq war.

"Five years after the invasion of Iraq, the death and destruction wrought by this disastrous war ought to compel even the most diehard supporters of the original decision to revise their position. Gordon Brown and David Cameron should now apologise for voting for the Iraq war. Contrary to the ludicrous claims of victory made by the likes of David Miliband and George Bush, the war has made Iraq a more dangerous place at a horrific cost whether measured in terms of lives, money or our security. Labour and the Conservatives share the blame for this catastrophic foreign policy mistake."

“The war in Iraq has already cost thousands of lives and billions of pounds. This tragic revelation brings home the continued human and financial impact, both at home and abroad.”

Presumably, when you said “thousands of lives”, you were just thinking of US and UK military personnel.

The US media watch FAIR wrote a few weeks ago: "There is no more important question about the Iraq War than the question of how many Iraqis have died. It is impossible to truly evaluate the war or discuss where to go from here without knowing the human cost of the war, and that cost has overwhelmingly been borne by Iraqis."

Surely I would not call a war of aggression – illegal under the UN Charter – that might have cost the lives of over one million Iraqi citizens a “mistake”. Please, may I ask you if the Liberal Democrats intend to spend some time and energy to highlight the human cost of the Iraq war?

Thank you for your time

Sincerely,
Gabriele Zamparini
London

P.S. Please, I send here some useful links:

Iraq: the Human Cost

Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates

ORB Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy

What is the real death toll in Iraq?

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

Robert Fisk’s mail bag

In his latest column for the British Independent, Robert Fisk writes:

“By chance, as Bush was speaking this week, my mail bag flopped open to reveal a letter from my old American military analyst friend, George W Appenzeller. He gently (and rightly) corrects some recent comparative figures I used on US casualties in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.”

After making several good points, toward the end Fisk writes about the most important one:

Now for much more blood, the civilian variety. According to George, "About 1,600,000 were killed in the Korean war, 365,000 (according to American authorities) and four million (according to the Vietnamese government) during the American phase of the Vietnam war, and who knows how many in Iraq. No fewer than 250,000, certainly." Not that long ago, Bush claimed that civilian fatalities in Iraq were "30,000 more or less" – again, note the "more or less" – but I can see why these statistics matter even less for him. (…)

While it’s important to remember that Bush’s "30,000 more or less" came from Iraq Body Count, it’s ironic that Robert Fisk reproduces a letter of his “old American military analyst friend, George W Appenzeller” to correct “some recent comparative figures”, when Fisk’s old friend seems to wander in the dark as he writes “and who knows how many in Iraq. No fewer than 250,000, certainly".

Being that excellent reporter we all rightly respect, Robert Fisk surely knows about the scientific studies on this topic published on the British medical journal The Lancet as well as the polls published by the British ORB, that estimated that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003 [Please, see below]. Nevertheless he let his friend’s words unchallenged in a piece whose central point is exactly those figures his friend writes about.

Maybe some of my readers could write to Robert Fisk to gently (and rightly) correct those figures he used in his latest Independent’s column so that when he checks his mail bag next time he will have more letters to write about. [It seems Robert Fisk doesn't use the Internet, so please write him a letter and send it to The Independent]

You may want to send Robert Fisk the following:

Iraq: the Human Cost

Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates

ORB Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy

What is the real death toll in Iraq?

PLEASE, READ ALSO:

EXTRA ZERO - An Exchange With The Independent’s John Rentoul

‘WITH TOTAL DESTRUCTION’ - THE FAILURE OF JOURNALISM IN IRAQ

ALL SMOKE, NO FIRE - THE NATIONAL JOURNAL SMEARS THE LANCET

Enjoy responsibly: "Truth and myth on the death toll in Iraq" by John Rentoul

Tony Blair's biographer and opinion-maker at the Independent John Rentoul wrote another interesting piece on the death toll in Iraq.

Before reading his latest fatigue though it would be instructive to read the following few paragraphs written by the same author on the same issue on the same newspaper in 2004 and 2005:

“However, this number is only the central point of a range that extends from 8,000 to 194,000. This huge disparity was mocked ignorantly by one American commentator as ‘not an estimate, it's a dartboard‘. It was also defended, equally ignorantly, by the editor of The Lancet, who said: ‘It's highly probable the figure is 98,000. Anything more or less is much less probable.’ Both wrong. What the figures say is that there is a 95 per cent chance that the true figure lies between 8,000 and 194,000... It is statistically respectable, which is why The Lancet article passed its peer reviews, but it produces estimates hedged about with great uncertainty. And there are good reasons for thinking that the true figure is towards the lower end of The Lancet's range.” (‘We should be counting the dead in Iraq, but let’s not get the figures out of proportion like this,’ John Rentoul , The Independent on Sunday, December 10, 2004)

“even Iraq Body Count, an anti-war campaign, puts the total attributable to coalition forces at under 10,000, rather than the figure with an extra zero that is the common misconception of anti-war propaganda”. (‘Islam, blood and grievance,' John Rentoul, The Independent, July 24, 2005)

Now enjoy responsibly!

Truth and myth on the death toll in Iraq
By John Rentoul
Wednesday, 02 April 2008

Important Note: This article is used to treat the panic and anxiety symptoms associated with the ongoing Iraq genocide. State-corporate media may cause dependence, especially if it has been used regularly for an extended period of time, or if it has been used in high doses. In such cases, if you suddenly stop using state-corporate media, withdrawal reactions may occur. Report any such reactions to your doctor immediately. When stopping extended, regular use with this drug, the dosage should be gradually reduced as directed to help prevent withdrawal reactions. Consult your doctor or pharmacist for more details. Properly stop the medication when so directed. This will lessen the chances of becoming addicted. You may also find help by reading the following:

- ‘WITH TOTAL DESTRUCTION’ - THE FAILURE OF JOURNALISM IN IRAQ

- Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

- Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy