The human costs of Bush's invasion of Iraq

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John Tirman, writing for The Nation, provides us with the latest estimates of the human costs related to George W. Bush's ill-advised, illegal and incredibly stupid invasion of Iraq.

He says, "the United Nations estimates that there are about 4.5 million displaced Iraqis -- more than half of them refugees -- or about one in every six citizens." [More perspective: That's about as many people as live in the area of South Florida comprised of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach.]

"Only 5 percent [of these displaced Iraqis] have chosen to return to their homes over the past year, a period of reduced violence from the high levels of 2005-2007. The availability of healthcare, clean water, functioning schools, jobs and so forth remains elusive. According to Unicef, many provinces report that less than 40 percent of households have access to clean water. More than 40 percent of children in Basra, and more than 70 percent in Baghdad, cannot attend school.

"The mortality caused by the war is also high. ... we have, at present, between 800,000 and 1.3 million 'excess deaths' as we approach the six-year anniversary of this war."


In summary: "About 1 million killed, 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows, 5 million orphans."

What did they do to deserve us?


Read the entire article here.