"When people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror. When people have hope in the future, they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism. So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity. We are standing with dissidents and young democracies, providing AIDS medicine to bring dying patients back to life, and sparing mothers and babies from malaria. And this great republic born alone in liberty is leading the world toward a new age when freedom belongs to all nations."
Moments later, there was this:
"Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere."
The disconnect between these two statements is profound. Yet to most people watching the speech, including major media outlets, the myriad tragedies of the Iraq War are measured primarily in the heroic deaths of coalition personnel. But what about the number of Iraqis who have died as a direct result of the war? It is worth noting that this number, or even an estimate within the nearest 10,000, is obscured, and perhaps consciously so. Data is available here, here and here, and corroborated by various studies, but is our national moral stupor so deep that we don't want to know about such things? George W. Bush, proponent of a culture of life, has claimed absolutely no public responsibility for the deaths that are the direct result of his decisions, decisions we now know were based on cherry-picked intelligence. As public reaction to Kanye West's statements has proven, it is in poor taste and ultimately ineffective to charge Bush with valuing life along a scale of pigmentation. Further counterclaims to Bush's racism can be found in his truly commendable efforts to save lives in Africa.
But back to the war that he started, where is the remorse, or even the acknowledgement of the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of innocent lives lost by bombing, strafing, shelling and scorching in Iraq? How does one reconcile dodging responsibility for such a grand scale of suffering with having a clean conscience? I am careful about calling people evil and believe it is worth noting that there are huge gulfs between George W. Bush and history's great villains. I also acknowledge that I am guilty of being nearly as outraged by his public displays of hubris as I am by the horrible strife for which his policies are responsible. I want to see sorrow, doubt, recapitulation, or even mere weight on his conscience. But I would gladly countenance more smirking and linguistic belly flops if we could see fewer human beings killed for bullshit reasons. Were such a statement to find its way into the purview of fans of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, I would expect to be accused of caring more about towelheads than about Americans. But that's a false choice. And in case you really are reading this, that's a false choice you stupid motherfucking life-devaluing piece of pigshit. Put down your fucking Doritos, turn off your fucking football game and ask your senator, congressman, and media outlet of choice to publish the number of non-combatant Iraqis who have died violently since March, 2003. You want to tell me that I value cameljockey lives more than American heroes, well I'll tell you that you value third down conversions and the orange dust on your fingertips more than the lives of innocent women and children. And if that isn't true, then I'll re-suggest my solution: ask your senator, congressman and favorite media outlet to publish the number of civilian deaths caused by our invasion of Iraq.
Everybody knows that approximately 3,000 people died on 9/11 [actual official # including WTC, Pentagon and airline passengers is 2,975]; and that the US Troop death toll in Iraq is approximately 4,000.
But how many civilians have died in Iraq? Why don't we know this? Why don't we care that we don't know this? Well, I care. George W. Bush is about to end his Presidency without being accountable for his actions. Obviously, the failures of his policies have extended beyond the battlefields in Iraq. But let's focus on this.
Please contact your senator, congressman and preferred media outlet and urge them to publish the number of Iraqis killed as a result of George W. Bush's war. It's a number he should carry.
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