The Awful Sound of Silence

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/23-3

The Awful Sound of Silence

by Steve Carlson

" And no one dared disturb the sound of silence. " Paul Simon

While I suppose one could argue that it's too early to start identifying the most under-reported story of the 21st century to date, I should think that the actual death and human suffering toll in Iraq might top the list of almost any discerning journalist, academic, policymaker, or for that matter, peacemaker. The fact that the scale and scope of the tragedy has been successfully obscured, so far, is in itself quite a story, though perhaps one with an ending that may leave our collective sense of fundamental goodness more than a bit shaken.

snip//


What do these numbers mean? For the sake of trying to understand let's pick a number halfway between the Iraq Body Count and Just Foreign Policy estimates. Let's assume that 650,000 Iraqi's have suffered violent deaths since 2003. Let's further assume that the halfway mark also applies to the number of widows, orphans and refugees the war has produced. Then let's put these numbers into context by noting that the population of Iraq in 2003 was roughly one tenth the population of the United States, and then by taking an imaginative leap. Here goes.

A brutal tyrant ascends to power in America, crushing opposition political parties, murdering dissidents and destroying our civil liberties. The European Union and Canada decide to invade in order to "liberate" the American people. And in the ensuing war 6.5 million civilians die violently from military and sectarian conflicts. Civilians, mind you. And the war also produces 6.5 million widows, 25 million orphans, and another 20 milion people displaced from their homes, or become refugees. And the numbers might be double that. 12 Million dead. 40 million refugees. 50 million orphans. Think about it for a moment, if you can.

Tens and tens of millions of Americans would know someone who had been killed in the war. Tens and tens of millions more would know war widows and orphans, or of neighbors, friends or family who fled elsewhere to escape the violence, perhaps permanently displaced. And tens and tens of millions more would have seen violent death and injury first hand. And all of this death and suffering against the backdrop of a destroyed power grid, healthcare system and general infrastructure. A nation and it's people reduced to rubble and despair.

We'd be absolutely awash in grief and shock if such a thing happened in this country. A lot of us wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning. A lot of us would feel as though we had no future and no hope. We'd never be the same again.

So how is it that any politician or pundit in America can talk about what did or did not "work" in the Iraqi War? How can a calamity of this magnitude be considered, in any sense whatsoever, a success? How could anyone in America have complained, as they have in the past, that the media doesn't report on the good things happening in Iraq. What good things?

Shouldn't somebody in Washington want to know the truth of what's happened in Iraq? Shouldn't the rest of us want to know, too? Shouldn't we be talking out loud about all of this? Maybe the crisis we're facing here at home is more than just an economic one.



Steve Carlson is a former steering committee member of United for Peace and Justice, and a member of the Iraq Moratorium national committee. He can be reached through his website at www.bottomrungproductions.com

I'm glad he discussed the atrocities that we have inflicted on others. Asking us to imagine how horrible this would be helps to make it more real.

I find myself feeling great sadness that some human beings still think it's OK to do these things.

Let's invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, open the doors to jihadists from all over the Middle East, and turn that country into a bloody battleground to keep the "terrorists" busy killing our troops and each other in the sectarian civil war that erupted as a result of our actions.

Oh, and by the way ... this was ultimately a humanitarian mission to depose a brutal dictator and spread democracy.


And another thing ... torturing our captives in the war on terror has saved hundreds of thousands of American lives (but it wasn't torture).

Congress knew well and good that the Iraq war was based on a number of Scams. The result was murdered Iraqis in
civil strife that was predicted and happened just as predicted. The president is a "brutal tyrant" and those who
voted for the war bear the heavy burden.

This is a great editorial. Thanks for posting.

"They" Knew the truth well before the Iraq War
BEFORE THEY VOTED, THE KNEW IT WAS A SCAM
http://electionfraudnews.com/MoneyParty/TheyKnew.htm

September 2007 – More than 1,000,000 Iraqis murdered
http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=78
In the week in which General Patraeus reports back to US Congress on the impact the recent ‘surge’ is having in Iraq, a new poll reveals that more than 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the invasion took place in 2003.

Previous estimates, most noticeably the one published in the Lancet in October 2006, suggested almost half this number (654,965 deaths).
These findings come from a poll released today by ORB, the British polling agency that has been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005. In conjunction with their Iraqi fieldwork agency a representative sample of 1,499 adults aged 18+ answered the following question:-

QHow many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age)? Please note that I mean those who were actually living under your roof.

None 78%
One 16%
Two 5%
Three 1%
Four or more 0.002%

react..and got called terrorists, anti patriotic idiot.
I got my phones tapped, my emails intercepted. I also got 'warnings' from NSA and FBI.
My home was invaded, I was put on the no fly list....
I got threats from individuals to the point we went and bought guns and keep them loaded for our own protection and moved to a house out in the boonies surrounded by woods and redneck neighbors that have adopted us who were supporters of ( * ) then realized that the son of a bitch is a coward and a war criminal.
It really bothers me that Americans cannot or will not think beyond what they want at the moment, and came down on me when I said Iraq did not have a thing to do with WTC.
It was the failure in the White House and the Supine court who put him there that are at fault for not doing their jobs.

of exactly how the USMIC has DESTROYED Iraq. The country is a fucking TOXIC WASTE DUMP and its population the WALKING DEAD. Long before Amis ever admit the senseless destruction their abdication of civic responsibility has wrought, they will feel the effects of digesting the horseshit they have so uncritically consumed.






I do so miss Mo...

I am quite chagrined that the American people have not been more concerned with the plight of the Iraqi people, who have suffered immeasurable pain and heartache through our malicious war of aggression. We must be stone cold in our hearts not to rise up in anger at the state in which we have left these beautiful and innocent people. We have killed, maimed, tortured, raped, sodomized, robbed, villified them. We have executed their leaders and destroyed their precious heritages, even the irreplaceable artifacts of 1000s of years of civilzation. We have refused their farmers the choice to continue to use their seeds, the seeds of centuries of care, so that Monsanta could sell them seeds. We have bombed their homes, driven them out of their land and stolen their main revenue, oil. And for what? Greed and money. America is no longer a kind place. It has become a center of consumption and unsavoriness. Our political leaders only care about the next election, the bankers and the corporations their next paycheck. Few seem to have integrity. I am ashamed of what we have done to the Iraqis and even more ashamed that we do not seem to care or bother to know.

and still there has been only one picture of a returning coffin...we have more billions in the works for these wars while we bail out banks and GM/Chrysler, Hedge Funds and Wall St.

Shouldn't someone want to know the truth of the COST of these Wars? Instead we get "Dueling Presidents (because it seems that Cheney thinks he's the Shadow President entitled to the honors that only voters should be able to give.)

Something is very wrong.

Thanks for the post to cut through the crap about the "fog of wars."