By Dr Gideon Polya
The Afghan War has now entered its 10th year. It has become the longest US war. As of 7 October 2010, the 9th Anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the human cost of the Afghan War has been estimated as about 4.9 million violent deaths or non-violent avoidable deaths from Occupier-imposed deprivation.
This photos shows villagers standing next to the bodies of civilians who they said were killed in a NATO-led attack in Armul village in Laghman province December 8, 2009. Thousands of innocent Afghan civilians have been killed in the war waged by foreign forces.
The ongoing, US Alliance-imposed Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide has now reached the dimensions of the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation). Decent people around the world must continue to vigorously oppose this gross violation of Humanity. To assist such decent folk I have prepared a carefully documented Afghan War Deaths Fact Sheet as set out below and incorporating the latest information as of 7 October 2010.
1. Post-invasion non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation total 3.7 million.(1)
2. Post-invasion violent deaths total 1.2 million (assuming advice that the level of violence has been 4 times lower in the Afghan War than in the Iraq War and an Iraq War violent deaths/non-violent deaths ratio of 1.3).(1) (2) (3)
3. Post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 2.6 million.(1)
4. Afghan refugees total 3.2 million, this comprising 2.7 million in Iran and Pakistan and 0.4 million internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in Afghanistan).(4)
5. The US bombing and US-backed Pakistani Army offensive in NW Pakistan generated 2.5 million Pashtun refugees.(5)
6. Annual under-5 infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan total 311,000, 90% avoidable and due to war-imposed deprivation.(6)
7. It has been estimated that the annual death rate is 7% for under-5 year old Afghan infants as compared to 4% for Poles in Nazi-occupied Poland and 5% for French Jews in Nazi-occupied France.(7)
8. Annual per capita total health expenditure permitted by the Occupiers in Occupied Afghanistan totals US$29 as compared to US$3,122 for Occupier Australia.(8)
9. Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 42/43. [8].10. Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2003): 35/36.(8)
11. Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 257.(8)
12. Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 500/443.(8)
13. % of under-fives (2003–2008) suffering from stunting (WHO) moderate & severe: 59%.(6)
14. Adult literacy rate: females as a % of males, 2003–2007: 29%.(6)
15. Maternal mortality ratio (annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births): 1,800.(6)
16. US military deaths in and around Afghanistan in the Afghan War total 1,246 and Australian military deaths total 22.(9)
17. About 100,000 people die avoidably from opiate drug-related causes each year. The US Alliance restored the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to over 90% today. It can accordingly be estimated that about 0.1 million people per year x 0.9 x 9 years = 0.8 million people have died globally due to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry, this including about 100,000 Americans and 3,000 Australians. (10) (11) (12) (13)
18. Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) and Professor Linda Bilmes (Harvard University) estimated the accrual cost of the Iraq War alone at over $3 trillion with huge impacts on oil prices, the Afghan war, US federal debt, liabilities for injured veterans, the global financial crisis and US recession. Dr Michael Intriligator, a senior fellow at the US Milken Institute, has suggested a long-term cost of the Afghan War at $1.5 trillion to $2.0 trillion. Australia’s involvement costs about $1 billion annually.(14) (15)
19. Perverted fiscal diversion for the Afghan War continues to have mortal consequences in the US and other US Alliance countries such as Australia. Thus it has been estimated that about 1 million Americans die preventably each year from poverty, deprivation or violence (e.g. 30,000 Americans are killed by guns each year, 44 million Americans live in poverty and the difference between infant mortality rates between Singapore and the world’s richest country, the US, indicates that about 20,000 US infants die avoidably each year). 9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year out of an Indigenous population of about 0.5 million due to Third World living conditions and a 2- to 3-fold underfunding of Aboriginal health (currently $1.5 billion annually but should be $3 billion to $4.5 billion annually). (16) (17) (18)
20. The horrendous fiscal diversion for war in Afghanistan (and in Iraq and indeed around the world) has contributed to the ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which an estimated 24 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation (16 million in 2003). (19)
21. Man-made global warming is a major problem for Humanity, together with nuclear weapons and poverty. The huge fiscal diversion for the Afghan War has crippled the political will of America to tackle man-made climate change.
Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have recently estimated that fewer than 1 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming – noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis.
The nations that need to curb greenhouse gas pollution most quickly and indeed achieve 100% renewable energy by 2020 if the world is to have a 67% chance of avoiding a 2C temperature rise (estimates by Professor Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany) are indeed the worst polluting US Alliance countries, namely the US, Canada and Australia.
“Annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), less than 3 (many African and Island countries), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 23 (Canada), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included).
Professor Schellnhuber says that (all men being created equal) an average annual per capita GHG pollution of about 3 tonnes CO2-e per person per year is needed over 40 years on the path to zero emissions by 2050 for a 67% chance of avoiding a 2C temperature rise disaster (worrying odds: would you board a plane if there were a 33% chance of it crashing?)(20) (21) (22)
22. The US Alliance is involved in an Afghan Holocaust (huge numbers of people dying) and an Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention which states : “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
It must be noted that mass murderers rarely confess and “intent” is typically established by sustained, remorseless conduct (for 9 years in the case of the US Alliance in the Afghan War).(23)
23. The US Alliance is grossly violating Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.Article 55. To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate. The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods. The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56. To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties. If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21. In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory.(24)
24. While Western Mainstream media, politicians, academics, public servants and law enforcement agencies ignore these horrendous realities in gross violation of truth, humanity and rational risk management, I have made repeated, detailed formal complaints to the International Criminal Court over US Alliance and Australian war crimes and genocide complicity in Occupied Afghanistan and elsewhere.(25)
Conclusion
What must decent people do? Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people everywhere must (a) inform everyone they can about the horrendous realities of the ongoing Afghan Genocide and (b) apply and urge intra-national and international Sanctions and Boycotts against all those people, politicians, corporations and countries complicit in this ongoing atrocity.
Footnotes:
[1] UN Population Division data: http://www.learnstuff.com/world-population-resources/ .
[2]. Just Foreign Policy: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/ .
[3]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqi... .
[4]. UNHCR: Afghanistan: http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/... .
[5]. UK Telegraph, 22 April 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor... .
[6]. UNICEF data on Afghanistan: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry... .
[7]. Polish Holocaust, Afghan Holocaust and Western Holocaust denial: http://www.countercurrents.org/poly... .
[8]. WHO data in Afghanistan: http://www.who.int/countries/afg/en/.
[9]. US casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan: http://icasualties.org/oef/ .
[10]. Australian National Drug Research Institute, “Tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs responsible for 7 million preventable deaths worldwide”, 2003: http://db.ndri.curtin.edu.au/media.... .
[11]. UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Drug Report 2007: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-... .
[12]. US foreign policy hugely supports global drug trade, Bellaciao: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?ar... .
[13]. Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/afgha... .
[14]. Joseph Stiglitz & Linda Bilmes, “The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond”, Washington Post, September 2010: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy... .
[15]. Eli Clifton, “Bill for Afghan War could run into the trillions”, Informatiom Clearing House, May 2010: http://www.informationclearinghouse... .
[16]. Gideon Polya, “Carbon burning, Zionism and war kill 1 million Americans yearly”, Newsvine, 2008: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/20... .
[17]. Gideon Polya, “The Awful Truth”, National Indigenous Times, June 2007: http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.as... .
[18]. Aboriginal Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/abori... .
[19]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007): http://globalavoidablemortality.blo... .
[20]. Climate Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/clima... .
[21]. Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research, Terra Quasi-Incognita: Beyond the 2 degree C line, International Climate Conference, 28-30 September 2009, Oxford , UK: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/pp... .
[22]. Beyond Zero Emissions, “Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan”, July 2010 (for free download see: http://beyondzeroemissions.org/abou... .
[23]. UN Genocide Convention: http://www.edwebproject.org/sidesho... .
[24]. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm .
[25]. 9 January 2010 Formal Complaint by Dr Gideon Polya to the International Criminal Court (ICC) re US Alliance Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan, Muslim, Aboriginal, Biofuel and Climate Genocides: https://sites.google.com/site/pales... .