“One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic”
Joseph Stalin
Today the BBC quoted some official stats on 2006 in Iraq. It seems that the decision to invade them caused in excess of 12,300 civilian deaths in 2006 along with over 800 US troops. Trends suggest that this figure will continue to rise for some time to come and the country may completely destabilize into civil war.
These stats appear in a week when we have seen the former Iraqi president hanged for the deaths of 148 Shias in Dujail in 1982. How can this be considered a greater crime than the 1,930 civilians killed in Iraq in Dec’06 alone as a result of the US invasion?
How can the people of Britain, America and other Western countries allow our leaders to get away with such atrocities? Sure they’ll be voted out of office at their next elections, but they will retire to a life of wealth and luxury with no accountability for their decisions, the lives they cost and the financial burden placed on their country and others. When we start making our leaders accountable for their actions, we will have good leaders. Until then we will have rich politicians with blood on their hands sleeping soundly in their luxury beds at night.