Mainstream Media lying by omission & complicity in 2.7 million Bush Wars death toll - Iran next?

Decent people are appalled by news reports of an impending US attack on Iran and we might surmise that if it is a prolonged war (cf Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Vietnam and Korea) that millions of people will die, if not from direct violence then from the collateral but equally deadly consequences of war. US Asian wars over the last 55 years have been associated with avoidable mortality totalling about 18 million - but this is IGNORED by racist, lying, Mainstream Media. A more pertinent estimate of what is in store for IRANIANS could come from assessment of war-related avoidable mortality (excess mortality) and infant mortality in post-invasion Iraq and Afghanistan (Iran’s neighbours).

However, it is extraordinary that not only Mainstream Media but also many Alternative Media are still IGNORING the ACTUAL horrendous human cost of violent, racist UK-US democratic imperialism (democratic tyranny, democratic Nazism) in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan - the post-invasion avoidable deaths now total 2.7 million comprising 0.5 million (Occupied Iraq), 1.8 million (Occupied Afghanistan) and 0.4 million (post-2001 opioid drug-related deaths due to Coalition restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry) (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5489/42/ ).

Whether a child dies VIOLENTLY from bullet or bombs or dies NON-VIOLENTLY from deprivation and avoidable and treatable disease the end result is the same and the culpability the same. Further, as explicitly set out by the Geneva Conventions, the Occupier is responsible for maintaining the health and lives of the Occupied - the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled.

Under-5 infant mortality is reported by the UN (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/) and UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/index.html) and is typically about 90% avoidable in Third World countries. Overall “avoidable mortality” (technically, excess mortality) is the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected in a decently-run, peaceful country with the same demographics and can be laboriously determined from UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/). However for the layperson it is useful to note that in "bad outcome" Third World countries, “under-5 infant mortality” - readily obtained from UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/index.html) - is roughly 0.7 of the “avoidable mortality” (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/).

According to the LATEST, Web-accessible UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) and UNICEF data (see: http://www.unicef.org/index.html ), the "under-5 infant deaths per 1,000 births" in oil-rich Iraq versus its impoverished neighbour Syria were 200 vs 170 (1953), 50 vs 44 (1990) and 125 vs 16 (SIXTEEN) (2004) i.e. infant mortality decreased enormously under the dictator Saddam Hussein but increased hugely after 1990 due to Western intervention.

The post-1990 under-5 infant mortality in Iraq under war-criminal UK-US sanctions, bombs and occupation now totals 1.6 million and the post-1990 excess deaths (i.e. avoidable deaths) now total 2.2 million. The 1990-2003 under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality in Iraq under sanctions and bombing totalled 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively; the 2003-2006 figures for post-invasion Occupied Iraq are 0.4 million and 0.5 million, respectively. In comparison, the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality and excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 1.4 million and 1.8 million, respectively (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5948/26/ ).

The horrendous under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan (1,300 infants dying every day, 0.5 million infants dying each year and with 90% of these deaths avoidable) is occurring because of the non-provision by the Occupying UK-US-led Coalition of the life-preserving requisites demanded unequivocally of Occupiers by the Geneva Conventions (see: (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). Indeed these horrendous crimes constitute “passive genocide” and are the subject of formal complaints to the International Criminal Court (see Countercurrents: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-p...).

Mainstream Media which knowingly ignore the horrendous post-invasion infant mortality and Coalition passive genocide in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories are guilty of lying by omission, holocaust denial and deliberate, racist disavowal of the fundamental human imperative of respect for Mother and Child.

To quote from “Layperson’s guide to counting Iraq deaths (see MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/ ): “In 1945 Germans presented with evidence of the Jewish Holocaust claimed that “We didn’t know” - lying by omission by Mainstream Media is giving Coalition citizens, and indeed everyone in the world, the same excuse in relation to horrendous post-invasion avoidable mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. It is up to decent people to INFORM EVERYONE that (a) “under-5 infant mortality” in “bad outcome” Third World countries is numerically about 0.7 of the “avoidable mortality” and (b) that under-5 infant mortality data for Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan and other Third World countries is regularly up-dated and reported by UNICEF (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/) - the awful truth is only a click away.”

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity - it IS possible to get through the lying Mainstream Media “gates” and the Wall of Silence. Please inform everyone about the horrendous human cost of war in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan - and the terrible threat facing Iran from UK-US state terrorism.

Dr Gideon Polya,

Melbourne, Australia

(see: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpo... and http://globalavoidablemortality.blo...).