May 23, 2023
"Post-9/11 U.S. Conflicts Killed Over 4.5 Million People"
Food for thought, especially for
1. U.S. and NATO countries' citizens, voters, taxpayers and military personnel,
2. Russian and Ukrainian citizens, voters, taxpayers and military personnel,
3. Ukrainian government decision makers (albeit with very limited independent authority under U.S. control) who approved
a. the receipt and use of depleted Uranium rounds on Ukrainian soil (ignoring the injuries and damage done by these rounds in Iraq and Serbia)
b. the shelling of Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Station after it was occupied by Russian troops (ignoring the lessons of Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island nuclear plants),
c. the termination of negotiations with Russia in April of 2022 (leading to needless Ukrainian civilian and military deaths that may have exceeded 100K by now)
d. the rejection of Russian proposals (demands) in the fall of 2021 that could have averted the current military conflict and all associated loss of life, health and property, including critical infrastructure
FYI, those Russian demands consisted of
i. No NATO membership for Ukraine,
ii. No NATO troops, weapons or military bases in Ukraine,
iii. No Nuclear, Chemical or Biological weapons and related facilities in Ukraine,
iv. Good-faith fulfillment of the Minsk Agreements (including the Steinmeyer road-map/formula), including
- stopping the shelling of Donetsk/Lugansk People's Republics (D/LNR)
- providing amnesty to D/LNR citizens, government & military officials & supporters,
- Providing decentralization & increased autonomy to D/LNR within Ukraine, including
-- rights to use Russian language as an official language and
-- rights to elect & appoint local government officials in all three branches of local government.
e. To allow / order the Ukrainian military to turn Ukrainian towns and cities (Mariupol, Bakhmut, Severodonetsk and etc.) into military battlefields knowing that this would not stop the Russian military advance but would destroy these cities and make them look like Dresden or Stalingrad in WWII
3. U.S. decision makers (elected & appointed government officials and, more importantly their private-sector sponsors/benefactors/owners/controllers) who
a. rejected in Fall of 2021 Russian demands regarding NATO and Ukraine (see above).
b. decided that turning Ukraine into a
(i) militarized anti-Russian puppet state with
- virulent Russophobia and associated discriminatory laws,
- radical Ukrainian nationalist ideology and
- neo-Nazi paramilitary groups and members/sympathizers in the Ukrainian military, law enforcement and security services, and
(ii) US/NATO forpost, if not a launching pad, for installing a Pro-US/EU/NATO government in Russia through enacting/facilitating regime change (removal of President Putin from office)
was the major or only way to pressure/force/convince Russia (by political, economic, military and even cultural means) from being/staying/becoming China's junior ally/partner in a political/economic/military confrontation with the United States (since China with Russia as its junior ally becomes unbeatable/unstoppable).
c. Ordered the Zelensky government to stop peace negotiations with Russia in April of 2022
d. Continue to flood Ukraine with weapons for the purposes of
(i) weakening Russia militarily, economically and politically at the expense of Ukraine's soldiers, citizens, economy and infrastructure
(ii) making money from arms sales / transfers (the NATO Intelligence & Military Industrial Complex is doing great at the expense of NATO & Ukrainian citizens, voters and taxpayers)
e. Risk the start of WWIII by
(i) supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons (artillery, missiles, drones and soon aircraft) which are then used by the Ukrainian military to attack military and civilian targets in territory now claimed by both Russia and Ukraine (Crimea, Lugansk, Donetsk),
(ii) approving (if not ordering) Ukrainian strikes against military and civilian targets on undisputed Russian soil (e.g. Belgorod and Kursk regions of Russia),
(iii) not condemning (if not approving / facilitating / ordering) Ukrainian accomplished and attempted assassinations of Russian citizens and anti-Ukrainian ideologues (Daria Dugina, Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin) and Zakhar Prilepin) on Russian soil.
(iv) not condemning Ukrainian
- shelling of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Station and attempts to retake it by force, risking a leak of radioactive materials worse than Chernobyl
- Drone attack on Kurskaya Nuclear Power Station (located in Russia) on April 26, 2023
(v) Conducting dangerous dual-use research (incl. gain of function research) on dangerous (lethal & highly contagious) pathogens (viruses, bacteria and other organisms) in U.S. managed and funded bio-laboratories in Ukraine.
4. Citizens and key decision makers (in government, business and organized religion) of non-NATO/EU countries who
a. have observed the current proxy / hybrid military conflict (war?),
b. can honestly ascertain and properly analyze its causes, means and goals (for all sides), and
c. will make prudent adjustments to their countries' foreign policy to protect their countries' interests, independence and security in today's post-Cold War world.
What do you think?
How many victims will post-2014/2022 Ukraine add to the count?
And what can we all do to minimize the needless & avoidable loss of life in Ukraine?
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Post-9/11 U.S. Conflicts Killed Over 4.5 Million People
May 17, 2023
The author of a study on the people killed indirectly by the War on Terror calls on the U.S. to step up reconstruction and assistance efforts in post-9/11 war zones.
...
The new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs shows “how death outlives war” by examining people killed indirectly by the War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
“In a place like Afghanistan, the pressing question is whether any death can today be considered unrelated to war,” Stephanie Savell, Costs of War co-director and author of the report, said in a statement.
“Wars often kill far more people indirectly than in direct combat, particularly young children.”
The publication “reviews the latest research to examine the causal pathways that have led to an estimated 3.6-3.7 million indirect deaths in post-9/11 war zones,”
while “the total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.6 million and counting, though the precise mortality figure remains unknown.”
As The Washington Post — which first reported on the analysis — details:
“Since 2010, a team of 50 scholars, legal experts, human rights practitioners, and physicians participating in theCosts of War project have kept their own calculations.
According to their latest assessment, more than 906,000 people, including 387,000 civilians, died directly from post-9/11 wars.
Another 38 million people have been displaced or made refugees.
The U.S. federal government, meanwhile, has spent over $8 trillion on these wars, the research suggests.
But Savell said the research indicates that exponentially more people, especially children and the most impoverished and marginalized populations, have been killed by the effects of war—
- mounting poverty,
- food insecurity,
- environmental contamination,
- the ongoing trauma of violence, and
- the destruction of health and public infrastructure, along with private property and means of livelihood.”
According to the report, “The large majority of indirect war deaths occur due to
- malnutrition,
- pregnancy and birth-related problems, and
- many illnesses including
-- infectious diseases and
-- noncommunicable diseases like cancer.”
One 2012 study found that more than half of the babies born in the Iraqi city of Fallujah between 2007 and 2010 had birth defects.
Among the pregnant woman surveyed in the study, more than 45 percent experienced miscarriages in the two-year period following the 2004 U.S. assaults on Fallujah.
Geiger counter readings of depleted uranium-contaminated sites in densely populated Iraqi urban areas have consistently shown radiation levels that are 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal.
The study also found that some deaths “also result from injuries due to war’s destruction of infrastructure such as traffic signals and from reverberating trauma and interpersonal violence.”
Savell said that “warring parties who damage infrastructure with an impact on population health have a moral responsibility to provide quick and effective assistance and repairs.”
“The United States government, while not solely responsible for the damage, has a significant obligation to invest in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in post-9/11 war zones,” she added.
“The U.S. government could do far more than it currently is to act on this responsibility.”
Please read the entire article at:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/05/17/post-9-11-us-conflicts-killed-over-4-5-million-people/
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