David Vine writes at THE GUARDIAN:
Since George W Bush declared a “global war on terror” following al-Qaida’s September 11 attacks, the wars that US forces have launched and engaged in have displaced an estimated 37 million people, according to a new report I helped produce with teams from American University and Brown University’s Costs of War Project.
The 37 million people displaced include 8 million refugees and asylum seekers and 29 million displaced within Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Displacing 37 million people is equivalent to removing all the residents of Texas and Virginia combined or almost all of Canada.
Given questions about even the best international displacement statistics, our estimate of 37 million displaced is a conservative one. The true total displaced by the US post-9/11 wars could be closer to 48–59 million – more people than in all of England.
It's just all equally spread out, right? That's the way the text plays. That's a cute way of ignoring reality. The displacement in Iraq had already become the biggest displacement in the Middle East since 1947 -- and that was before Bully Boy Bush left the White House. The displacement didn't stop after he left. If you check the graph, you'll notice 9.2 million displaced puts Iraq well in the lead. But, hey, you'd have to be an idiot or someone not paying attention to fail to notice that Cost of War put a pause on concerns about Iraq starting in 2009. When Vine does note that some may have concerns over some of the countries included, he still doesn't convey the truth:
Some may criticize the inclusion of countries outside Afghanistan and Iraq in our calculation. Some may critique the inclusion of Syria (although our conservative methodology includes well under half of those cumulatively displaced since the start of Syria’s civil war). We note that even if we were to focus only on the 14.5 million displaced in Afghanistan and Iraq, that total would exceed displacement in any war since 1900 except the second world war.
Iraq, at 9.2 million, has nearly twice as many displaced as Afghanistan (5.3 million). Iraq can never get its fair share -- even when counting the tragedies.
And Cost Of War wants to be taken seriously in 2020. Are we all supposed to forget how certain leaders on the Cost of War project there were part of Barack Obama's campaign and how, once he was elected, they really scaled back their alleged 'concern' for the Iraqi people. Is that academia because it's always struck me as nothing more than whoring.
Linda Blimes, you little whore, getting on that advisory board -- was that your payment? Should I say, was that your only payment? No, it wasn't. Barack appointed you to two advisory boards. And you were never really 'independent,' were you? Independent people wouldn't have served in Bill Clinton's administration, would they? But, hey, the men left the money on the dresser for you, didn't they, Linda?
The Iraq War never ends and the occupation goes on and on forever. Friday, the United Nations Security Council announced:
The Security Council, in a videoconference meeting* on 18 September, announced its decision to renew the mandates of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by [. . .] ISIL (UNITAD) — and the Special Adviser leading it — until 21 September 2021.
In unanimously adopting resolution 2544 (2020), the Council took note of the request by Iraq in its 16 September letter (document S/2020/909). It also decided that any further extension would be determined at the request of Iraq’s Government, or any other Government that has requested the Team to collect evidence of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) on its territory, in accordance with resolution 2379 (2017).
In other news, June 6th is the day being floated by Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kahimi for parliamentary elections. On that front, Zhelwan Z. Wali (RUDAW) notes:
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi urged parliament’s speaker
Mohammed al-Halbousi to press for the “swift” passage of the draft
electoral law at a meeting on Saturday.
The top leaders "discussed the election law, and stressed the importance
of passing it swiftly, in order to move forward with holding early
elections next June," according to a tweet by PM Kadhimi's office.
Here the two are in a Tweet that Mustafa posted:
That Tweet notes that they discussed economic, security and and political issues and the need for the executive branch and the legislative branch to work together. The Tweet below from Mustafa notes that they discussed the need to pass an election law:
كما بحث الجانبان قانون الانتخابات وأهمية الانتهاء منه سريعا، للمضي قدما بإجراء الانتخابات المبكّرة في حزيران المقبل، وتنسيق الدور الرقابي لمجلس النواب، ودعم الجهود الحكومية في مكافحة الفساد .
