Thursday 20 March 2008

The Arghhhs and Ahhhhs of Life

An Arghhh Moment

What was meant to last 5 months has now lasted 5 years and resulted in the rather unpalatable and totally incomprehensible figures of:
nearly 4,000 military deaths USA, 175 deaths UK, 133 deaths other coalition
nearly 40,250 military wounded USA
nearly 150 self inflicted miliatary deaths USA
nearly 1,500 contractors killed
nearly 90,000 Iraqi civilian deaths
nearly 5,000,000 (35%) Iraqi children are orphans
nearly 4,000,000 Iraqi refugees
170 international journalists killed
4 soldiers missing or captured USA
5 post Iraq deaths caused by war injuries
For more details check out the statistics at
icasualties.org

At a cost so far of $1.2 trillion ($7.1 billion a month -America), £16 billion (Britain) and countless many millions to the other coalition countries also involved. Done in order to find 0 weapons of mass destruction and 0 Iraq and Al Quaeda connections.

These number represent human beings. Think about those numbers. They will continue to grow and be replaced by others. Yet Bush says it was all necessary and the costs worthwhile. We have indeed paved the way to hell. Dear Mr President ........in the words of Pink, how do you sleep while the rest of us cry?

An Ahhhh Moment

Brad and Angelina are making the world a more attractive place one child at a time it seems......



They are reported to be having twins, a girl and a boy. This makes six children, three adopted and three from natural birth.
Regardless of what we may think about celebrities, Angelina has bought world attention to the plight of Iraqi refugees, who are very, very vulnerable people displaced in their own country because of the war.

It's all very well for us to now demand the withdrawal of troops and an end to the War but who cleans up the devastation and destruction left behind? It will not be a problem for the world leaders who made the decision to go to war. They will all, as soon as Bush leaves office in November, be sunning themselves in some far flung resort, patting themselves on the back for their gallant efforts and looking forward to their easy retirements. Other Government Administrations will have to come in and face the awful clean up job that will go on for many decades.

It's not about who is right or wrong anymore. It's been done. However, the wrong people are paying the price for others' mistakes. How do we cease the war just like that? How do we repair and rebuild communities and lives given the level of destruction? What are we doing to help the victims? The soldiers, the civilians, the orphans, the homeless?
Does anyone have any answers to the bloody mess that is?

3 comments:

  1. Hi thanks for dropping by my blog.
    Your writings are very entertaining.
    I really admire Angelina juggling motherhood and doing some good.
    Let me know if you visit Singapore again, maybe I can give you some tips on must sees and eats.

    Cheers!

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  2. Lilly, I commend you for your passion in wanting answers to the debacle that is Iraq. I agree with you 100% in that it doesn't matter anymore about right and wrong, we just can't let it get any WORSE, by abandoning the very people we tried to help in the first place. Maybe time will tell if there is a silver lining hidden somewhere in this mess, but it sure is hard to imagine one now.

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  3. I think along these lines. The U.S. can't pull out. The implications of this would be disastrous. It's no longer about why they went in. It's about making it work. The consequences of failure would be devastating in a wider sense.

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Thanks for your comments.