US Afghanistan Invasion 10th Anniversary: 5.6 Million War-related Deaths

US Afghanistan Invasion 10th Anniversary: 5.6 Million War-related Deaths

By Dr Gideon Polya

10 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org

As of 7 October 2011, the 10th Anniversary of the US  invasion of Afghanistan , the human cost of the Afghan War has been estimated as about 1.4 million violent deaths and 4.2 million  non-violent avoidable deaths from Occupier-imposed deprivation, a total of 5.6 million war-related deaths. A detailed and documented Afghan War Human Cost Fact Sheet has been prepared to assist humane public discussion of the ongoing, US Alliance-imposed Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide (5.6 million war-related deaths) that has now reached the dimensions of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation).

1. Post-invasion non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation total 4.2 million (using a baseline of expected annual mortality of 4 deaths per 1,000 of population for a high birthrate Developing country not subject to war). [1].

2. Post-invasion violent deaths total 1.4 million (assuming expert 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 2.9 million (nearly twice the number of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed by the Nazis in WW2). [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 currently total 237,000, 90% avoidable and due to war-imposed deprivation. [6]

7. It was estimated in 2009 that the annual death rate was 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$69 as compared to US$3,382 for Occupier Australia. [8].

9. Life expectancy at birth m/f (years): 47/50 (as compared to 80/84 for Occupier Australia). [8].

10. Gross national income per capita:  US$ 1,100 (as compared to US$37,250 for Occupier Australia) . [8].

11. Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births): 199 (as compared to 5 for Occupier Australia). [8].

12. Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population): 440/352 (as compared to 79/45 for Occupier Australia). [8]

13. % of under-fives (2003–2008) suffering from stunting (WHO) moderate & severe: 59% (negligible in Occupier Australia except for Indigenous Australians). [6].

14. Adult literacy rate: females as a % of males, 2003–2007: 29% (about 100% for Occupier Australia)). [6].

15. Maternal mortality ratio (annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births): 1,800 (adjusted value 7 for Occupier Australia in 2008) [6].

16. US military deaths in and around Afghanistan in the Afghan War as of October 2011 totaled 1,721, Australian military deaths totaled 29 and total US Alliance deaths totaled 2,757. [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 about  90% today. It can accordingly be estimated that about 0.1 million people per year x 0.9 x 10 years  =  0.9 million people have died globally due to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry, this including about 200,000 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; about 20,000 Americans die annually from lack of medical insurance; and about 1 million Americans die preventably each year from these causes and related lifestyle choices such as drinking, smoking and obesity-linked problems). 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). Australia spends about $1 billion annually on the Afghan war [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 18 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China ). (There were 16 million global avoidable deaths  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 only about 0.5 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 and Afghanistan), 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). Australia 's current annual domestic plus exported per capita GHG pollution is 64 tonnes CO2-e per person per year (71 times that of Bangladesh or Afghanistan ).  Professor Schellnhuber says that an average annual per capita GHG pollution of about 2.6 tonnes CO2-e per person per year is needed over 40 years on the path to zero emissions by 2050 with a 67% chance of avoiding a 2C temperature rise disaster (conservative 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 10 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].

25. In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree C temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 Gt CO2 (600 billion tonnes CO2) between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Unfortunately Australia (through disproportionately huge annual fossil fuel burning and exports) had by August 2011  already used up its  “share” of this terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) budget and is now stealing the GHG entitlement of other countries, including wretchedly poor countries such as Bangladesh and Afghanistan. From this analysis major GHG polluter the US has about 3 years from mid-2010 to get to zero emissions while low emitters Afghanistan and Bangladesh have over 80 years left. The US and Australia are not merely war criminal, racist and genocidal  but also climate criminal, climate racist and climate genocidal  in relation to devastated Afghanistan. [26].

Conclusions.

An appalling irony is that according to the “official Bush Administration version of 9-11” no Afghans were involved in the 9-11 atrocity (3,000 dead). Osama bin Laden denied involvement, was not wanted by the FBI for this crime,  was offered up by the Afghan Government to a Third Country for trial (an offer rejected by the Americans) and was finally deliberately murdered by the Americans (this preventing long-sought judicial testimony and making Barack Obama an accessory after the fact of the 9-11 atrocity). Indeed many science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts assert that the US did 9-11 [27].

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UN ODC) has stated clearly that  "the United States saw 38,400 deaths from illicit drug use in 2006, corresponding to a drug-related mortality rate of 182 deaths per one million inhabitants aged 15-64". 60% of these are due to opiates and of opiate-related deaths 90% are due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry to about 90% of world market share i.e.  0.6 x 0.9 x 38,400 = 20,740 pa and 201,000 US opiate drug deaths since October 2001 due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry. The corresponding figure for Australia is 3,000 such deaths of Australians linked to the US Alliance and Australian invasion and occupation of Afghanistan . [28].

A s of 7 October 2011, the 10th Anniversary of the US  invasion of Afghanistan , the human cost of the Afghan War has been estimated as about 1.4 million violent deaths and 4.2 million  non-violent avoidable deaths from Occupier-imposed deprivation, a total of 5.6 million war-related deaths, carnage that has now reached the dimensions of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and which amounts to a US Alliance-imposed Afghan Holocaust and an Afghan Genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention. Mainstream media lying and censorship in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies ensures that ordinary citizens remain largely unaware of this ongoing catastrophe [29, 30]. Decent people must (a) inform everyone they can and (b) urge and apply sanctions and boycotts against all people, politicians, products, corporations and countries involved in this ongoing atrocity.

[1]  UN Population Division data (the 1998 Revision): http://esa.un.org/unpp/ .

[2]. Just Foreign Policy: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/ .

[3]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

[4]. UNHCR: Afghanistan : http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e486eb6 .

[5]. UK Telegraph, 22 April 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/7614290
/Ziyah-Gafic-Precious-possessions-in-Pakistan.html .

[6]. UNICEF data on Afghanistan : http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/afghanistan_statistics.html .

[7]. Polish Holocaust, Afghan Holocaust and Western Holocaust denial: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170410.htm .

[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.asp?mediarelid=40 .

[11]. UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Drug Report 2007: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2007.html .

[12]. US foreign policy hugely supports global drug trade, Bellaciao: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19234  .

[13]. Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[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-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302200.html .

[15]. Eli Clifton, “Bill for Afghan War could run into the trillions”, Information Clearing House, May 2010: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25479.htm .

[16]. Gideon Polya, “Carbon burning, Zionism and war kill 1 million Americans yearly”, Newsvine, 2008: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2008/06/19/1593137-carbon-burning-zionism-war-kill-1-million-americans-yearly .

[17]. Gideon Polya, “The Awful Truth”, National Indigenous Times, June 2007: http://www.nit.com.au/news/story.aspx?id=11552 .

[18]. Aboriginal Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .

[19]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007): http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2008/08/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality.html .

[20]. Climate Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .

[21]. Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact research, Terra Quasi-Incognita: Beyond the 20C line, International climate Conference, 28-30 September 2009, Oxford , UK : http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/ppt/1-1schellnhuber.pdf .

[22]. Beyond Zero Emissions, “Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan”, July 2010 (for free download see: http://beyondzeroemissions.org/about/bze-brand .

[23]. UN Genocide Convention: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html .

[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/palestiniangenocide/9-january-2010 .

[26]. Gideon Polya, “Shocking analysis by country of years left to zero emissions”, Green Blog, 1 August 2011:   http://www.green-blog.org/2011/08/01/shocking-analysis-by-country-of-years-left-to-zero-emissions/ .

[27]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/home .

[28]. UNODC: http://www.unodc.org/documents/southerncone/Topics_drugs/
WDR/2011/Regional_overview_ENG.pdf .

[29]. “Mainstream Media Lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .

[30]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/ .

Dr Gideon Polya currently teaches science students at a major Australian university. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has recently published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ). He has just published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/
bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ . 

http://www.countercurrents.org/polya101011.htm