[Editorial] Three Years of Killing in Iraq
Three years is almost 1,100 days. During that much time an average of two U.S. soldiers has died in Iraq each day. An estimated 50 Iraqi insurgents have died daily as well. Maybe the U.S. will say it is an “efficient” war when 25 insurgents die for every one American, but between 30,000 and as many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives, too. That’s between 30 and 90 a day, and if it’s not a slaughter, what is?
U.S. president George W. Bush marked the occasion by calling it the third anniversary of Iraq’s “liberation” and said his country is engaged in a strategy for victory. That is an attitude that says there needs to be more killing. There are anti-war protests in major cities around the globe, the majority of Iraqis want U.S. forces to leave, and the majority of Americans say the war isn’t worth it. Yet the Bush Administration pretends not to hear them.
Whether the invasion was justified or not is no longer even a subject of debate. It has now been some time since the false justifications have been stripped bare for all to see the greed for hegemony and benefits. The U.S. turns Iraq into a bad situation, then threatens that things would get worse if it leaves. Now there is even talk of invading Iran. There is global insecurity originating in America that knows no end. Democracy in the Middle East has to be won through the sweat and blood of Middle Easterners, not forced with American tanks and missiles. Continuing the killing while invoking democracy is itself undemocratic.
If the Vietnam War was a “scar on the conscience of humanity in the 20th century,” the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is a new test for humanity’s conscience in the 21st century. The world must solve the problems of Iraq and the Middle East on the premise that all foreign armies are withdrawn. Korea is no exception, since it sent troops to Iraq on the wrong principles.
The Hankyoreh, 21 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]