Death and Democracy

Two thousand and counting by Peter McGeough

More than 2000 American soldiers have died in the Iraq invasion since it started way back in... when was it..? Can't remember any more - it's been going on for too long already and shouldn't have even happened in the first place. However, it's sad that such a lot of people have been killed there.

Sadder still are the statistics for the number of Iraqi people killed by both soldiers and insurgents. Estimates put Iraqi civilian deaths somewhere between 26,690 and 30,060, which is around 13 to 15 times higher than the military deaths. But since these people aren't white, Western or non-Muslim, the numbers they're dying in (around 60 a day) end up being statistics at the end of news reports (and we're not meant to be a racist, ethnocentric society?)

Journalists have also been killed in record numbers in this invasion. I don't remember the figure, but apparently it's the highest number of journos ever killed in a war. And that includes the Viet Nam war, which went on for years and years. A fair few of the journalists have been Iraqis, and some of them have been killed by American soldiers who knew of their journalist status. At what price comes truth..?

I have a friend who's serving in Iraq currently, and I have to wonder what effect all of this is having on him. When I've talked to him lately, he's seemed to be more and more down, especially since Australian troops were attacked a couple of weekends ago. It must be depressing to see that things aren't working out there and that people genuinely don't want foreign troops in their country (as this article points out).

What cost is all of this coming at? What point did it ever have? What point will it have now? Who would honestly believe that the Iraqis would welcome an invading force with flowers, lollies and celebratory songs?

As Vladimir Putin pointed out, democracy has to be something that people of a country choose as part of their own internal processes. It can't be forced down their throats, but allowed to develop in their own time and their own way. Democratic nations should be setting an example for what good government can really be like rather than going into another country and killing its people.