Weighing Iraq: Costs of War, Price of Freedom--Talking Points

Total Number of Fatalities and Wounded in Iraq:

The mystifying numbers of the fallen Iraqi soldiers and civilians: who is keeping count?

US and coalition forces death toll and wounded. When is enough, enough?

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Iraqi Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database/

Bringing Saddam to Justice

How legitimate will the tribunals prove in Iraq with out the presence of the International Courts? Can Iraqi courts bring the Baathists and Saddam to justice?

· War-crimes trials for Saddam Hussein and 11 of his Baathist Party cohorts, accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations, will begin within the next two to four weeks.

· A judge and lawyer for the special tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein and former members of his government have been assassinated.

· The suspects are accused of crimes that span 30 years and a broad array of charges - from genocide against the Kurds in the north and the Shia in the south of Iraq, to human rights crimes against the countries of Kuwait and Iran.

For more on the problems and perils of brining war-criminals to justice see, “” By Faye Bowers at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0223/p03s01-wogi.htm

And “2 Members of Hussein Tribunal Are Assassinated in Baghdad” By ROBERT F. WORTH at http://www.gadsdentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050302&Category=ZNYT&ArtNo=503020344&SectionCat=&Template=printart

Reconstruction

Education-- Major Accomplishments to Date:

· Rehabilitated 2,405 schools countrywide.

· Printed and distributed 8.7 million revised math and science textbooks to grades 1-12 by mid-February 2004.

· Awarded five grants worth $20.7 million to create partnerships between U.S. and Iraqi universities. Through these partnerships, Iraqi universities are rebuilding infrastructure; reequipping university facilities; participating in international conferences; attending workshops and refresher courses; and reforming curriculum.

Health--Major Accomplishments to Date:

· Vaccinated over 3 million children under five and 700,000 pregnant women with vaccination campaigns that included monthly immunization days.

· Provided potable water for 400,000 persons each day in Basrah city and 170,000 persons in Kirkuk and Mosul.

· Provided skills training for 2,500 primary health care providers and 700 physicians.

Water and Sanitation-- Major Accomplishments to Date:

· Nationwide: Repaired various sewage lift stations and water treatment units.

· Baghdad: Expanding one water treatment plant and constructing another to increase capacity by approximately 70 million gallons per day; rehabilitating sewage treatment plants.

· South: Rehabilitating parts of the Sweet Water Canal system, including repairing breaches, cleaning the main reservoir, and refurbishing 14 water treatment plants around Basrah serving 1.75 million people.

For more on information on reconstruction accomplishments see “United States Agency for International Development (USAID)” http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/

Iraq’s Women and Children

International Women’s History Month is March. How will Iraqi Women be treated under the new gov’t?

· A report by British NGO Medact revealed in November that Iraqis will feel the brunt of the US-British invasion for years and “maybe generations” to come with the “alarming deterioration” of the health care system in the war-ravaged country.

· The Iraqi health ministry warned in November that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has nearly doubled since the US invaded the country in March 2003.

· The United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) had warned that the number of children who suffer from diarrhea, Iraq's number one killer of infants, has more than doubled under occupation.

· Women and girls in Iraq live in fear of violence. The current lack of security has forced many women out of public life and constitutes a major obstacle to the advancement of their rights. Since the 2003 war, armed groups have targeted and killed several female political leaders and women's rights activists.

· Three wars and more than a decade of economic sanctions have been particularly damaging to Iraqi women. Under the government of Saddam Hussain, they were subjected to gender-specific abuses, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, or else targeted as political activists, relatives of activists or members of certain ethnic or religious groups.

· Gender discrimination in Iraqi laws contributes to the persistence of violence against women. Many women remain at risk of death or injury from male relatives if they are accused of behavior held to have brought dishonor on the family.

For more on the condition of children in Iraq, see “Iraqi Children Pay the Price of "Freedom" by Saleh Amer, http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/22/article04.shtml

For more on the status of women, see, “Decades of suffering, Now women deserve better.” From Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012005

What do Iraqis want?

1. When Should Forces Leave? January 2005: 82 percent of Sunni Arabs and 69 percent of Shiites favor US withdrawal “either immediately or after an elected government is in place.” (Zogby)

2. Attitudes toward US forces January 2005: 53 percent of Sunni Arabs say ongoing attacks are a legitimate form of resistance. (Zogby)

3. Attitudes toward the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi government October 2004: 55 percent say Interim Government does not represent the interests of people like them “very much” or “at all”. Nearly 50 percent find the government to be ineffective; 43 percent find it to be effective – a sharp decline since the government took office in June 2004. (International Republican Institute.)

4. Is life better or worse? August 2004: 46 percent of Iraqis say their situation has improved since the fall of Hussein, 31 percent say it has grown worse, and 21 percent say it is unchanged. (International Republican Institute.)

For more on, Iraqi attitudes on occupation, US withdrawal, Iraqi governments, and quality of life see Project on Defense Alternatives Compiled by Carl Conetta http://www.comw.org/pda/0501br17append.html

Soldiers and the Long Journey Home

· Of more than 5 million veterans treated at VA facilities last year, from counseling centers like this one to big hospitals, 48,733 were from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan

· Of the 244,054 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan already discharged from service, 12,422 have been in VA counseling centers for readjustment problems and symptoms associated with PTSD.

· More and more in Iraq, combat surgeons say, the wounds involve severe damage to the head and eyes -- injuries that leave soldiers brain damaged or blind, or both, and the doctors who see them first struggling against despair.

· Accurate statistics are not yet available on recovery from this new round of battlefield brain injuries, an obstacle that frustrates combat surgeons.

o Judging by medical literature and surgeons' experience with their own patients, "three or four months from now 50 to 60 percent will be functional and doing things," said Maj. Richard Gullick. "Functional," he said, means "up and around, but with pretty significant disabilities," including paralysis.

· Thirty-one Marines committed suicide in 2004, all of them enlisted men. The majority were younger than 25 and took their lives with gunshot wounds. There were 24 suicides in 2003, and there have not been more than 29 in any year in the last 10.

· The Marine Corps suffered a 29 percent spike in suicides last year, reaching the highest number in at least a decade, with the demanding pace of military operations likely contributing to the deaths, says one top-ranking U.S. Marine.

For more about the homecoming soldiers, see “Trauma of Iraq War Haunting Thousands Returning Home” William M. Welch at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-02-28-cover-iraq-injuries_x.htm

And “The Lasting Wounds of War” by Karl Vick at: http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=4414

For more on the rise in suicide, see “Suicides in Marine Corps Rise by 29% Fast Pace of Operations Are Believed to Contribute” by Ann Scott Tyson http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51933-2005Feb24.html

Journalists

Journalistic Risk: the dangers reporters face often prove too terrifying to get the job done—kidnapping, suicide bombers, car bombs, insurgents attacks. How many reporters have been kidnapped / killed?

· A total of 37 journalists are confirmed dead since the US launched its preemptive strike against in March 2003.

· The number of presumed dead would bring the total to over 40.

· In 2004 alone 23 journalists were killed in Iraq. 16 have been Iraqi

· According to Wall Street Journal Reporter Farnaz Fassihi: "I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in anything but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling."

For more on the dangers that journalists face, see the Committee to Protect Journalists http://www.cpj.org

And, “Reporting from Iraq is a Deadly Job” By Zlatica Hoke http://www.voanews.com/english/NewsAnalysis/2004-10-22-voa78.cfm

Financial Costs

How much are we paying to conduct this stabilization of a new Iraq? What else could this money pay for? How much more will we need to spend?

The bill so far: $146.6 billion. February 14 request from the President: $61 billion more

· Estimated cost of war to date to every U.S. household: $2,000

· Average monthly cost of the Vietnam War, adjusted for inflation: $5.2 billion

· Average monthly cost of the Iraq War: $5.8 billion

· Amount contractor Halliburton is alleged to have charged for meals never served to troops and for cost overruns on fuel deliveries: $221 million

· Kickbacks received by Halliburton employees from subcontractors: $6 million

What $207 billion could have paid for in the U.S.:

· Affordable housing units: 1.86 million

· Health care for uninsured Americans for one year: 47 million

· Scholarships for university students: 40 million

· Head Start slots for a year: 27 million

· Port container inspectors: 3 million

The $146 billion already allocated could pay for 2 years worth of:

· Food for half the hungry people in the world and

· A comprehensive global AIDS treatment and prevention program and

Hot facts from the study by the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/failedtransition/transition.pdf