40,000 bodies buried in Bakersfield

Okay, I lied.

These UNIDENTIFIED bodies are not buried in Bakersfield. They are buried in Najaf, Iraq. I choose Bakersfield to get your attention, and because California is roughly the same size and population as Iraq.

This op ed says that there are now 40,000 unidentified bodies buried in Najaf since the illegal US invasion of the country of Iraq in 2003. These figures come from city officials in Najaf. I do know that there are a group of men in Baghdad that collect the unidentified bodies from the Baghdad morgue and transport them to Najaf for a proper Muslim burial. They do this twice a week, and I frankly don’t know how they can keep on doing this week after week.

Of course, it is reasonable to assume that not all the unidentified bodies in Iraq end up in Najaf. Some of them are surely buried in rubble from US bombs, or buried in the desert to hide a crime. The unidentified bodies in Mosul are probably buried in Mosul, and that is likely true for other cities in Iraq that are further from Najaf, or where the unidentified bodies are likely Sunni Muslims.

And we do know that most deaths in Iraq are from IDENTIFIED victims.

We do know that the corporate media vastly under estimates of the number of Iraqis killed. We do know that most of the stories of the deaths do not ever reach the media. More evidence is cited in this op ed:

In a speech Sept. 5, Samir Sumaidaie, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, stated that there were 500,000 new widows in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group similarly found that the Pentagon undercounted violent incidents by a factor of 10. Finally, last month, the respected British polling firm ORB released the results of a poll estimating that 22 percent of households had lost a member to violence during the occupation of Iraq, equating to 1.2 million deaths. This finding roughly verifies a less precisely worded BBC poll last February that reported 17 percent of Iraqis had a household member who was a victim of violence.

On top of this massive death that Americans do not recognize, a lot of them do not recognize that this is a war of aggression – just like the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Of course, the German people had more of an excuse – they were lied to and had no way to investigate those lies. Americans do not have that excuse at all. They were lied to by their corporate media, but a small amount of investigation and a small amount of critical thinking would easily debunk these lies. This op ed spells it all out:

Mistakenly, many Americans still believe President Bush's war on Iraq is justified because Congress supported it and funds it. Yet, as international legal authority Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois points out, President Bush got congressional backing by lying that Hussein had W.M.D. and that Hussein was connected to 9/11. That's fraud, probably the bloodiest, costliest lie in White House history. Also, to start a war, a country needs UN Security Council approval, which Bush failed to get. Otherwise, a nation can fight only in self-defense when attacked. By attacking Iraq, Bush violated the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928, the UN Charter, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals, and the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment and Principles, Boyle said. As all treaties become the supreme law of the land under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, the Bush-Cheney presidency is guilty of breaking all of the above, warmongering in spades.

We also know that this aggression is ongoing – this month a massive assault on the Dora neighborhood in Baghdad, where residents claimed that US troops would not allow males over age 13 to leave with other residents before the assault.

And, of course, our Constitution is toast, but you knew that, right? It has been toast from the minute US troops were sent into Iraq.

And, as Frank Rich has pointed out today, our government also tortures and kidnaps on top of being a mass killer and extensive warmongering. But, as he also points out, it is not just our government.

WE ARE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE.

And as President Carter has said – the US has abandoned “basic principles of human rights”.

PLEASE DO SOMETHING EXTRA TO STOP THIS. Make sure your elected officials know your name and face. Go to the internet and print up pictures of Iraqis in grief and in pain, and paste them on a postcard and sent it to your Senators, Representative and the White House. Do this dozens of times! (I have done it hundreds of times. A hundred postcard stamps only costs $26.00. Postcards can be made out of ordinary stock card paper.)

If at all possible, go to a regional protest on October 27^th. There is one in North Carolina that is pointing out that NC has companies that participate in torture and kidnapping, along with being a significant part of the war machine.

Realize that our country is very violent and very militarized. I am a pacifist, but I see the need for a military. I do not see a need to have them spread around the world creating mayhem and committing genocide. They should be inside our own country.

And if they follow illegal orders, we should not make heroes out of them. Our heroes should be the military men and women who do not follow illegal orders. Our heroes are the ones that resist. Please join me in working against such extensive militarism in our country, and such violence in our culture.

And, if you have any money to spare, please help the Iraqi refugees. Most of them are destitute. Here is another way to help them.

More information on what is happening in Iraq here.