- 3 months ago
To commemorate Dick Cheney's death, we have remastered philosopher Stefan Molyneux's 2013 presentation on the War in Iraq. He critically analyzes the Iraq War on its 10th anniversary, revealing the staggering human cost with approximately 1.5 million Iraqi casualties and the devastating impact of sanctions. Stefan examines the propaganda of weapons of mass destruction, mental health issues faced by U.S. veterans, and the economic corruption linked to wartime contracts. The discussion also highlights the environmental destruction caused by military actions and its effect on local perceptions of U.S. presence. He concludes by urging listeners to confront the harsh truths of war and our shared responsibilities.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hi, everybody. It's DeFan Molyneux from Freedom Inn Radio. Hope you're doing well.
00:03So, on this 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I think it's worth having a look
00:09at some of the facts that you're being shielded from. Generally, when you're within an empire,
00:15there's this sort of biosphere, this obsidian biosphere that keeps reality out, and the only
00:20thing that pierces it through is the occasional blowback, which causes self-pity and hysteria,
00:25because the provocations overseas are not particularly seen. So, let's look at some
00:30of the facts of what has occurred in Iraq over the past 10 years. And really, for 10 years before
00:36that, there was a UK-US-led blockade of some pretty essential medical supplies and food and other
00:43resources. One thing to remember is that the population of Iraq is a little over 30 million,
00:49and the population of America is 313 million. So, roughly, it's a 10 to 1 thing. So, when we
00:55talk about the deaths of 5 million Iraqi children, we are, to translate it in American terms, we'll
01:00be talking about the deaths of 50 million American children. And it's just really important to keep
01:06those perspectives in mind when we look at this data. So, as a result of the coalition invasion,
01:13approximately 1.5 million Iraqis are dead. This would be the equivalent of 15 million Americans
01:21killed as a result of an invasion. The US veterans in medical facilities, there are approximately 1,000
01:30suicide attempts every month from these broken people. 18 suicides a day are completed. 320,000
01:39veterans have brain injuries, which, of course, are hugely expensive and problematic.
01:42Almost 1 in 10 Iraqis have been displaced, which means they basically had to flee their homes,
01:50either as a result of radiation poisoning from the depleted uranium shells, or as a result of the
01:56general bombing of infrastructure, or as a result of the snipers, or as a result of resistance forces,
02:03coalition forces, you name it. No electricity, no plumbing, no hospitals. They've had to leave. And,
02:09again, this is about 30 million Americans having to move as a result of war. 80% of the displaced are
02:19women and young children. Let's look at the average Iraqi family. The odds that a father has been killed are 1 in
02:2811. Odds that the mother is now the main breadwinner are 1 in 7. Odds that the daughter has been or is
02:34malnourished. Before 2003 was 1 in 5. Since 2007, 1 in 3. Odds that the son has been exposed
02:41to a traumatic event in the past two years, 1 in 2. 1 in 2.
02:49Now, if we look at the lead-up to Iraq war, beginning in 9-11, and then going up to the Iraq war,
03:01the invasion, you can see that the web of lies was just staggering, and recall some of the German
03:07Nazi propaganda that if you're going to tell a lie, tell a big one. And there's lots of places you can
03:13go on the web to find this. But there was a slam dunk. There's no doubt. They knew where the weapons
03:18of mass destruction were. They knew that Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy yellow cake from
03:22Nigeria. They knew that Saddam Hussein had connections with Al-Qaeda, which, as a secular
03:28ruler, he didn't. And so, in general, about 935 lies were told in the lead-up to the war.
03:35The first war is always the war on truth. After that becomes the war on flesh. And this is consistent
03:41with lies told in the past. I mean, the Gulf of Tonkin incident was fabricated that began
03:46the Vietnam War. And you just can go back. I've done a whole true news series on war lies. You
03:51can check out more of those. So, the lies are just astounding, staggering, and completely predictable.
03:59So, President Bush, October 7, 2002, said,
04:03The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.
04:07Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for
04:11gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. Not true.
04:15The Department of Energy officials who monitor nuclear plants say the tubes could not have been
04:19used for enriching uranium. One intelligence analyst who was part of the tubes investigation
04:23angrily told the New Republic, You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying
04:29the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television,
04:34and that's just a lie. That's just a lie.
04:36A lie. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities
04:45of uranium from Africa. This was in the State of Union address, Jan 28, 2003. In March,
04:51Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, tells the UN Security Council
04:57that the documents substantiating the claim of alleged Iraqi efforts to buy uranium in Niger were fakes,
05:02and bad ones at that, and that these specific allegations are unfounded. The unnamed ex-ambassador,
05:08whom the CIA sent to check out the story tells the New Republic, they knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie.
05:16I mean, the dates were wrong, the guy's signature was wrong, it was a really bad forgery,
05:20and this is elevated to the status of a war that causes 1.5 million dead.
05:30Lie. We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.
05:35Alliance with terrorists could easily allow the Iraq regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.
05:40No evidence of this has ever been leaked or produced.
05:45Colin Powell told the UN this alleged training took place in a camp in northern Iraq.
05:48To his great embarrassment, the area he indicated was later revealed to be outside Iraq's control
05:52and patrolled by Allied warplanes.
05:58Lie. We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons,
06:02and that they have dispersed them, and that they've weaponized,
06:05and that they're weaponized, and that in one case at least the command and control arrangements have been established.
06:092003, President Bush, National Radio Address.
06:13Despite a massive nationwide search by U.S. and British forces,
06:16there are no science traces or examples of chemical weapons being deployed in the field or anywhere else during the war.
06:21What is not in dispute is that about 1,000 uranium-enriched shells were fired,
06:27which have significant health consequences, as we'll see.
06:34Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003.
06:37We know where Iraq's WMDs are.
06:40They're in the area around Akrit and Baghdad, and east, west, south, and north, somewhat.
06:45Man, wouldn't it be nice to be lied to by somebody who wasn't such a ridiculously bad liar?
06:50No such weapons were found, not to the east, west, south, or north, somewhat or otherwise.
06:56We could go on.
06:57May 2003, remember? Mission accomplished.
07:02Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.
07:06May 29th, we found them. We found the weapons of mass destruction.
07:09No.
07:10May 1st, 2004, daily life of Iraqis is improving.
07:14One year later, after mission accomplished, despite many challenges,
07:17life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam's regime.
07:21At the most basic level of justice, people are no longer disappearing into political prisons,
07:25torture chambers, and mass graves,
07:26because the former dictator is in prison himself, and their daily life is improving.
07:34Approval of President Bush's handling of the war and overall job.
07:39This is from 2003 to 2007.
07:42It's a massive decline.
07:44I mean, everybody who cheered what the government did,
07:47it really does have blood on their hands.
07:49I mean, it's sad but true that this is not possible to be accomplished.
07:55These kinds of slaughters, you can't accomplish them without the cheers of people like you,
08:00perhaps people around you,
08:02and this is why we avoid the consequences of our blind patriotism.
08:09Fewer Republicans even say war was the right decision.
08:13And, I mean, this is one of the great hypocritical tragedies of the modern world,
08:17which is the degree to which the anti-war movement has dissolved under Obama, right?
08:23Because it was anti-Bush, not anti-war.
08:27Was the Iraq war a right thing or a mistake?
08:30Well, as you can see here, going from 70% to 80% down to 40% or below.
08:36I'm sure it continues to go down now.
08:39This is from 2007.
08:42So, this is a UK opinion, an Iraq survey.
08:46Were the US and British right or wrong to take military action?
08:49Right, 29%.
08:50Wrong, 60%.
08:52Refused or don't know, 1% and 9% respectively.
08:55So, the support for the war is, of course, diminishing,
08:58even with the absence of information about what is occurring in Iraq.
09:02It's Britain, a safer place as a result of the war in Iraq.
09:05Safer, 5%.
09:06No difference, 37%.
09:08Less safe, 55%.
09:10Don't know, 3%.
09:11The only grave marker that points some light towards the future
09:18on the bodies of the 1.5 million Iraqi dead,
09:21would you trust the government now if it said military action was needed?
09:25Don't know, 4%.
09:26Trust, 32%.
09:27Need to trust, not distrust, 13%.
09:30But distrust, 51%.
09:31This is shocking and staggering progress.
09:36It is at an enormous cost.
09:38But it is a staggering process for people to actually begin to distrust
09:41what governments say about the necessity for military action.
09:44So, the corruption involved in the Iraq war is staggering and, of course,
09:55completely predictable.
09:56War always involves massive amounts of corruption and theft from the general population
10:00and from the future in terms of debt and from the resources of the country being destroyed.
10:04So, between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production
10:10over the past four years is unaccounted for
10:11and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling,
10:13according to a draft American government report.
10:16Using about 50 bucks a barrel,
10:18the discrepancy was valued between 5 and 15 million dollars a day.
10:22A day.
10:23Halliburton's overcharge is classified by the Pentagon as unreasonable and unsupported
10:281.4 billion dollars.
10:35A commission determined that contracting waste in Afghanistan
10:39ranged from 10% to 20% of the 206 billion dollars spent there so far,
10:43with fraud, which includes bribery and rigging bids,
10:46comprising between 5% and 9% of the total.
10:48So, I would imagine that these are just very conservative estimates.
10:54This is just the stuff that shows up on the radar.
10:56This is the stuff that's been reported by people who weren't bribed to keep it quiet.
11:00So, the war is an excuse for theft, right?
11:04Like, you know, there's this old cliche that if someone,
11:07like some kid bumps into you in a crowded street
11:09and he's an accomplice of the thief
11:11and the thief then takes your wallet as you are dealing with the kid,
11:13it's a distraction.
11:14War is a distraction for theft
11:16and for the acting out of sociopathic murder impulses
11:19as part of the kill-buck class, the soldiers.
11:25Members of the Wartime Contracting Commission estimated
11:27that a lack of oversight of private contractors,
11:30a lack of competition for winning contracts,
11:32and a culture of corruption plagued reconstruction projects
11:35and battlefield support in both countries.
11:38Those failings cost between 31 billion dollars and 60 billion dollars,
11:42the Associated Press reported.
11:44That's a truly staggering amount of money.
11:46The idea that the military can rebuild a country is ludicrous.
11:55I mean, you might as well send a bunch of computer programmers to fight a war.
11:59I mean, it's just a completely different skill set
12:00and a completely different mindset
12:02and simply can't be achieved.
12:04I mean, soldiers are not superheroes who are good at everything.
12:07They are good at blowing things up
12:09and breaking things and killing people.
12:11That's not really the skill sets which you're looking for in building a country.
12:20And let's look at the accountability.
12:22This is very important.
12:24It's frustrating, of course, for anyone with a moral sense,
12:26but let's look at this.
12:27So, March 5, 2004.
12:28Former U.N. weapons inspector declares the Iraq war illegal.
12:33The war was declared and continued under false pretenses.
12:35The Iraq war was a violation of the international crime of aggression,
12:40which is a war crime and would result in the death penalty.
12:45And it doesn't matter, of course, right?
12:48I mean, death penalty is only for the victims of the state,
12:51not for those who run the state.
12:53The U.S. opened a military offensive against the Arab Republic
12:55on the premise that the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein
12:57was harboring weapons of mass destruction.
12:59One decade later, the global community is aware
13:01that the intelligence claims of Iraqi WMDs
13:04were patently false, at least,
13:05and a blatant fabrication at worst,
13:06but this knowledge has done nothing to erase the damage of the conflict.
13:11Ah, Mr. John Bolton.
13:13Bolton backed an Iraq invasion as early as 1998,
13:15when he signed a letter from the Project for a New American Century
13:18urging then-president Bill Clinton to attack Saddam Hussein.
13:22Ah, wasn't it nice when the only major problems
13:24that we had with American presidents was blowjobs?
13:26As the State Department's top arms control official
13:31during President Bush's first term,
13:32Bolton played a role in pushing the allegation
13:34that Saddam Hussein sought uranium in Africa.
13:38Now, if you defraud your insurance company,
13:41if you lie on a job application,
13:42if you do any kinds of minor fraudulent things,
13:45you will be charged, you will be fired,
13:47you will face negative consequences.
13:49What if you told lies that resulted in the deaths of millions of people?
13:55Well, nothing.
13:56In fact, you know, promotions.
13:58Bolton remains an influential player in Republican foreign policy circles.
14:01A senior fellow at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute,
14:04he publicly mulled the 2012 presidential run
14:06before serving as a key advisor to Mitt Romney.
14:09This tells you all you need to know
14:10about the power of Mormonism to shield you from evil,
14:13that this worm tongue
14:15was also whispering into Mitt Romney's waxen ear.
14:19L. Paul Bremer.
14:22Known as Jerry, Bremer was the top civilian administrator in Iraq.
14:25Bremer's tenure was plagued by charges of financial mismanagement.
14:28A 2005 Inspector General's report disputed by the Pentagon
14:31found that the U.S. lost track of $9 billion allocated for Iraq's reconstruction.
14:34Now, Bremer lives in Vermont and paints rural landscape scenes,
14:38perfects his French cooking,
14:40and serves on several corporate boards.
14:42I, myself, would never be seen in the same room with this man,
14:46but I guess lots of other people like his government connections
14:49because it allows them to siphon off some of the blood money of war profits
14:51that are driven through state power.
14:54Elliot Cohen, he was a founding member of Crystal's PNAC,
15:00was a key agitator for an Iraq invasion
15:02and for a maximalist response to the 9-11 attacks.
15:05In a November 2001 op-ed in which he called the war on terror World War IV,
15:10Cohen argued that the U.S. should target Iraq
15:12because it had helped al-Qaeda and developed weapons of destruction.
15:16Now, he teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies
15:20at Johns Hopkins University.
15:24The boys from Brazil,
15:27teaching other people how to run international relations.
15:33When you look at this through a clear-eyed moral lens,
15:36our world is, the hierarchy of our world is progressively more ghastly
15:40as we rise to the top.
15:42We truly have, you know, zombie hearts, sociopaths,
15:46and all the people surrounding them running things.
15:49This is, if you don't understand the degree to which evil people run the world,
15:52the world remains kind of incomprehensible.
15:54But, of course, the evil people can only run the world
15:55because we praise them and we worship them and we respect them
16:00and they, you know, look reasonable in suits and speak calmly
16:03and we don't listen to the content of what they say, only the form.
16:07So, what was predicted and what resulted from the war in Iraq?
16:13Well, the Bush's administration pre-war estimates of the cost of the war
16:16was $50 to $60 billion, as reported in New York Times at the end of 2002.
16:21And, of course, this was supposed to be paid for by the oil revenues coming from Iraq.
16:26$12 billion direct cost per month of the Iraq war as of 2008.
16:32So, the entire cost was supposed to be a few months' worth of what the actual cost is.
16:39$526 billion, the amount of money already appropriated by Congress for the war in Iraq.
16:44That's as of 2008.
16:45This was, of course, many years ago.
16:47The total cost of the war, estimated in 2008, at $3 trillion.
16:51$5 to $7 trillion is the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
16:57accounting for continued military operations, growing debt and interest payments,
17:00and continuing health care and counseling costs for veterans as of 2008.
17:04Of course, the total sum has grown since then,
17:07so off by a factor of many thousands, and that is predictable.
17:12I mean, they've done studies before.
17:13The government estimates are always ridiculously low,
17:16and this is what they use to sell you,
17:17and then they enslave you with this ridiculousness.
17:19So, to estimate this, you see this in sort of bubbles.
17:23The initial estimate is in the gray, $1.6 trillion spent to date,
17:27and $6 trillion total cost with interest through 2053.
17:31This is what happens when you cheer.
17:33When you gain the relief from anxiety,
17:35and you submit or succumb to the Nazgul-style hatred of an imagined and invented enemy,
17:42when you join the bloodlust, when you pursue the ogre,
17:44that is your own future self and your children's lives,
17:47and you throw pitchforks and set fire to things.
17:50As part of the rabble, as part of the mob, this is what happens.
17:54Your future gets eaten alive.
17:55A lot of what is going on in the U.S. economy is a direct result
17:58of the government's participation in the successful agenda of al-Qaeda.
18:04Al-Qaeda, as you know, probably the Mujahideen in Soviet Russia,
18:09was trained by the CIA to bring down Soviet Russia by engaging them
18:12in unwinnable wars in Afghanistan.
18:14And the stated goal of bin Laden was to cripple the American empire
18:20by getting it involved in unwinnable wars and bleeding its treasury dry.
18:26This is how you end empires.
18:28Why did the British empire end?
18:30Because England destroyed its economy and its gold reserves in the Second World War.
18:35This is how empires end.
18:36They run out of money, and the best way to end an empire
18:39is to get involved in unwinnable wars
18:40and let all of the financial vultures pounce in and drain the treasury dry
18:44and waste lives through that way.
18:47And this is how the war on terror is being consistently lost.
18:52The treasury is being bled dry through destructive and vicious overseas wars.
18:58And as progressive blowback incidents occur,
19:02more and more civil rights are squashed in the home front,
19:04and all of the traumatized vets come home and become police officers
19:07and security guards and other kinds of enforcers
19:10and are then readily available to round up and herd up
19:13and control the domestic population,
19:15the end of empire will bring the effects of empire home.
19:19This is what happens when you don't burrow through
19:20the obsidian biosphere of the cultural protection
19:25that you are given where you don't see
19:27the bodies of the victims of your foreign policy.
19:30So let's look at some of the effects of the war.
19:35Of course, loss of life, fraud, capital destruction,
19:37long-term permanent environmental losses.
19:40Let's look at the capital destruction that has occurred through the war.
19:44It's not just the people, of course.
19:45It's the entire infrastructure that is done.
19:48So first, of course, we have the destruction of capital as a whole.
19:53Cost of Iraq war is rising per second,
19:55almost $4,000 per minute, over a quarter of a million per hour,
19:58close to $14 million per day, $330 million per week,
20:03$2.3 billion, and on and on and on.
20:06So this is the cost that is accruing to you.
20:10I mean, it's not like Donald Rumsfeld's going to have to pay it off
20:13out of his piggy bank.
20:14In a speech, March 20th, 2008,
20:19Obama, in the midst of his presidential campaign,
20:21stated,
20:21when Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month,
20:24you're paying a price for this war.
20:27So the $3 trillion war,
20:29a new book by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes,
20:33and what they said is the monthly operating cost of Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
20:38It's about $16 billion.
20:40To think of it another way,
20:42the book says roughly every American household is spending $138 per month
20:45on the current operating costs of the war,
20:47with a little more than $100 per month going to Iraq alone.
20:50Now, it's really, really important to understand
20:52that this is really the tip of the iceberg of what it costs.
20:55Of course, this money is not presented to the American public in the moment, right?
21:00You don't, so to say,
21:01they don't start a war and then send you a bill for a few thousand dollars.
21:05They start a war and borrow
21:06so that you get to indulge in all the vicious sentiments
21:09and brutality of patriotic bloodlust
21:12and merging with the vicious herd.
21:15You get all those psychological short-term benefits,
21:17but you're not presented with any kind of bill
21:19that would lower your desire and your bloodthirstiness, right?
21:24So the money is borrowed,
21:25and the money is then spent and blown away
21:27and just destroyed and fed into the sausage mill
21:31of human disassembly, which is warfare.
21:33And that money is not available for entrepreneurs,
21:36it's not available for investors,
21:37and the people who are over in the war
21:39aren't doing other things that would be productive to the economy.
21:41So these are the direct costs.
21:42The indirect costs are many times higher.
21:44And so this is the reality.
21:47You can't have war without debt.
21:49They say that war is the health of the state,
21:50but the reality is that the state is the health of war.
21:53You can't have war without the state.
21:54And I've written articles on this,
21:55which you can find on my website.
21:57So the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee
22:01estimated $3.5 trillion costs through 2017
22:05said the war would cost the average U.S. family $46,400.
22:10$46,400 per person.
22:11The total cost would be $11,627.
22:16Do you have that on you?
22:18But of course, not everyone is economically productive.
22:22The total gainfully employed in 2008,
22:24this is of course before the massive unemployment started,
22:27138 million people.
22:30In 2008, $16 billion cost per gainfully employed person,
22:33which is the division,
22:34$116 per month per gainfully employed person.
22:39Now, lots of people employed in the public sector
22:41who are net negatives on the treasury
22:43because they are paid through money
22:46or taxed or borrowed or printed.
22:49So if we look at that,
22:52per gainfully employed person,
22:53it's $138 per month.
22:58So what has been spent on Iraq
22:59cumulatively through the Department of Defense,
23:02the State, and the Veterans Administration,
23:06this is a tsunami, really,
23:07of blood measured in dollars.
23:11So the $440 billion spent on the war
23:15is up until 2006.
23:18You could provide complete healthcare coverage
23:19for all 45 million uninsured Americans for a year,
23:22five years of public housing
23:23for all 3 million homeless Americans,
23:25three years of food
23:26for all 36 million hungry Americans,
23:28one nice dinner
23:29for everyone in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea.
23:34And I mean,
23:34I don't believe any of these should be done
23:36because they would all involve
23:37the forcible redistribution of income
23:39through state power,
23:40but it's a good way to measure
23:42what could be done.
23:46So the Iraq war,
23:47this is a variety of studies,
23:49so these numbers are not all the same.
23:50Of course, it's impossible to get
23:51any kind of final numbers in these things.
23:53The Iraq war cost the US
23:54more than $2 trillion,
23:55cost $1.7 trillion
23:58with an additional $490 billion
23:59in benefits owed to war veterans,
24:01expenses that could grow
24:01to more than $6 trillion
24:02over the next four decades,
24:03counting interest,
24:04claims a study.
24:05The HuffPost found
24:062007 Iraq war
24:07was costing $11 million per hour
24:09or $6,000 every second.
24:11Total amount of money lost
24:12or unaccounted for
24:13from the Iraq war
24:14are $9 billion.
24:16Total amount of money lost
24:18and unaccounted for
24:18stolen equipment,
24:20$549.7 million.
24:22So this is an example.
24:27I mean, this is what happens
24:28in the military.
24:29After the US and allied warplanes
24:30destroyed a key bridge
24:31carrying 15 oil and gas pipelines
24:33in northern Iraq
24:33during the 03 conflict,
24:36so they made its post-war reconstruction
24:37a top priority,
24:39but instead of spending
24:39two months to rebuild
24:40the span over the Tigris River
24:41at an estimated cost of $5 million,
24:43they decided for security reasons
24:44to bury the pipelines beneath it,
24:46which would cost
24:47more than five times more.
24:49So what happened
24:49tells the story
24:51of this drive
24:54to reconstruct Iraq.
24:56So studies conducted before
24:57the digging of the new pipeline
24:59started showed
24:59that the soil was too sandy,
25:01but neither the Army Corps
25:02of Engineers
25:02overseeing the effort
25:03nor the main contractor
25:04at the site,
25:04Kellogg Brown and Root,
25:06heeded the warning.
25:06As a result,
25:07tens of millions of dollars
25:08were wasted on churning sand
25:09without making any headway,
25:11a special inspector general
25:14for Iraq reconstruction,
25:15Stuart Brown said.
25:18And of course,
25:19the purpose is not
25:20to rebuild the bridge.
25:20The purpose is not
25:21to put the 15 oil
25:22and gas pipelines
25:23back together.
25:24The purpose is
25:24to make a lot of activity
25:25and steal a lot of money.
25:27I'm sorry,
25:27this is just the way war is.
25:29By the time
25:29the digging effort
25:30was halted
25:30and the old bridge
25:31and piping repaired,
25:32more than three years later,
25:33the bill had reached
25:33more than $100 million.
25:36Massive profits
25:37for people involved,
25:39massive losses
25:40for everyone else.
25:42Because of the nature
25:43of the original contract,
25:43the government
25:44was unable to recover
25:45any of the money
25:45wasted on this project.
25:47And also because
25:48there's no particular incentive
25:49for them to do so.
25:51More than $1.5 billion
25:52in oil revenues
25:53may have been lost
25:54as a result of the delays.
25:56I mean,
25:56there's no point
25:58getting frustrated.
25:59I mean,
25:59there's no point
26:00getting frustrated.
26:01I mean,
26:02it's like driving a tractor
26:02into your garage
26:03and then getting upset
26:04that it falls down.
26:06I mean,
26:06this is what war is.
26:07This is what war does.
26:07So here's more
26:12from Afghanistan.
26:13A commission cited
26:14numerous examples of waste,
26:15including a 360 million
26:16U.S. finance
26:17agricultural development
26:18program in Afghanistan.
26:19The effort began
26:20as a $60 million project
26:22in 2009
26:22to distribute vouchers
26:23for wheat seed
26:24and fertilizer
26:24in drought-stricken areas
26:28of northern Afghanistan.
26:29The program,
26:30as it always does,
26:31expanded into the south
26:31and east.
26:32Soon the U.S.
26:32was spending $1 million
26:34a day on the program,
26:35creating an environment
26:36ripe for waste
26:38and abuse,
26:38the commission said.
26:40Paying villages
26:41for what they used to do
26:42voluntarily destroyed
26:42local initiatives
26:43and diverted project goods
26:44into Pakistan for resale,
26:46the commission said.
26:47I mean,
26:47not to mention,
26:47of course,
26:48that the Taliban,
26:50evil though they were,
26:51had done somewhat
26:51of a decent job
26:52of reducing
26:55or destroying
26:55the opium crop,
26:56the poppy crop,
26:57which now,
26:58of course,
26:58is back
26:58and has diverted
27:00a huge amount
27:00of criminal resources
27:01away from possibly
27:02productive activities
27:03to the shipping
27:04of opium
27:05and heroin
27:06and all the other
27:06products of this
27:07nefarious flower.
27:14You know,
27:15if you fail
27:16to provide receipts,
27:17if you get audited,
27:17this is a big problem,
27:19but that's only
27:19because you see
27:20you're a tax livestock
27:21and the people in charge
27:22are not subject to
27:22really any of the rules
27:23that you are subjected to.
27:25So when Bowen's office
27:26asked to see a logbook
27:27documenting $1.3 billion
27:28in fuel purchases
27:29by the coalition
27:30provisional authority,
27:31the logbook
27:31could not be found.
27:33Put it down here somewhere.
27:34Defense officials
27:35also could not
27:36produce documents
27:36supporting their
27:37expenditure of over
27:37$100 million in cash
27:39found in a vault
27:39at the Republican Palace,
27:41the gilded Saddam Hussein parlor
27:42that became
27:42a headquarters
27:43of the occupation.
27:46Average U.S. expenditures
27:47for Iraqi reconstruction
27:48in 05,
27:48for example,
27:49were more than
27:49$25 million a day
27:51when Bowen's auditors
27:51went looking for documents
27:52supporting billions of dollars
27:53of fund transfers
27:54to the Iraqi government
27:55in that period
27:56they discovered
27:56the paperwork was
27:57largely missing.
27:59Who pays?
28:00Nobody.
28:00You.
28:01Your children.
28:01The future.
28:02Iraqis.
28:02Post-war planning
28:06was non-existent.
28:06This is very,
28:07very important.
28:08Very important
28:09to understand.
28:10This is a money grab,
28:11it's a power grab,
28:12and it's a way
28:12of venting the murder
28:13lust of sociopaths.
28:14It's not to do
28:15with reconstructing
28:16the country.
28:17In March 2003,
28:18which is when
28:18the Iraq war began,
28:19there was a meeting
28:20of war planners
28:21and intelligence planners
28:22in which a lieutenant colonel
28:23who was giving
28:23a briefing on the Pentagon's
28:24plans for rebuilding Iraq
28:25after the war
28:26could say only
28:27to be provided,
28:29which means
28:30to not be provided.
28:31A veteran State Department
28:32of Officer
28:33involved directly
28:33in Iraq policy
28:34said,
28:34we didn't go in
28:35with a plan,
28:35we went in
28:36with a theory.
28:37You know,
28:37we'll be greeted
28:37as liberators,
28:38we'll spend a bunch
28:39of money,
28:39and everything
28:39will turn into
28:40Shangri-La.
28:42Well.
28:46So,
28:47the Associated Press
28:47reported earlier
28:48recently that
28:49the U.S. military
28:50authorities in Kabul
28:51believe $360 million
28:52in U.S. tax dollars
28:55has ended up
28:55in the hands of people
28:56the American-led coalition
28:57has spent nearly
28:58a decade battling,
28:58the Taliban criminals
28:59and power brokers
29:00with ties to both.
29:02When this money
29:03all goes missing,
29:03when this money
29:04walks off,
29:04it floats around
29:05and a lot of it,
29:06like the weapons,
29:07ends up in the hands
29:07of your enemy.
29:09380 tons of explosives
29:10are missing.
29:11380 tons of powerful
29:13conventional explosives
29:14have been missing
29:14since April 2003
29:15after the U.S. invaded Iraq.
29:17A New York Times
29:18article of 25th October 2004
29:20says that the facility
29:21was supposed to be
29:21under U.S. military control
29:22but is now a no-man's land.
29:24The U.S. was warned
29:25about the stockpile
29:26of explosives
29:26before the war,
29:28but of course
29:28there was this
29:28big photo op drive
29:29to get to Baghdad,
29:30right?
29:31So they just had to
29:32leave the explosive behind
29:32which were then
29:33stolen by all the people
29:34to be able to make
29:3520 years' worth
29:36of IEDs.
29:40So,
29:41a firm based in Dubai
29:42managed to keep
29:43around $4 billion
29:44in Pentagon construction
29:45contracts
29:45despite routinely
29:46marking up the price
29:47of switches and plumbing
29:47parts between
29:483,000 and 12,000 percent
29:50according to an audit
29:51that Bowen conducted
29:52in 2011.
29:54June 13, 2011,
29:55Department of Defense
29:56announces that
29:56$6.6 billion
29:57earmarked for Iraq
29:59has been lost
30:00with no explanation.
30:03America airlifted
30:04massive quantities
30:05of money into Iraq
30:06in the chaos
30:06following the 03 invasion
30:08filling cargo planes
30:08with shrink-wrapped bundles
30:10of $100 bills
30:10worth billions of dollars.
30:12The money was stashed
30:13at one of Saddam Hussein's
30:14former palaces
30:14and at U.S. military bases
30:16before being distributed
30:17to Iraqis
30:18which sometimes involved
30:19transporting sacks of money
30:20in pickup trucks.
30:22Previous investigations
30:23had already uncovered
30:24massive waste
30:25and corruption
30:25in Iraqi reconstruction
30:26but this was the first time
30:27an investigator suggested
30:28that money had been
30:31directly stolen
30:31not lost through mismanagement.
30:33Come on,
30:33you put a bunch
30:34of young guys
30:34in charge of
30:35crates worth
30:37of $100 bills,
30:38I mean,
30:38what do you expect
30:39is going to happen?
30:40I mean,
30:40good heavens.
30:45So let's see
30:46what this government
30:48program to battle
30:49terrorism
30:49has achieved.
30:51The theory,
30:52of course,
30:52is that violence
30:52will always achieve
30:53the opposite
30:53of its intended goal
30:54and let's see.
30:58So the number
30:59of global terrorist
31:00incidents
31:01from January
31:01to September 11th,
31:022001,
31:031,188.
31:05From January
31:06to September 11th,
31:072006,
31:08five years later,
31:09after the invasions
31:09of Iraq and Afghanistan
31:10and the TSA
31:12and Department of Homeland Security
31:13and CIA,
31:14involvement around the world
31:15and massive spending
31:16to combat the war
31:17in terror,
31:18the number
31:19of global terrorist
31:19incidents
31:20were 5,188.
31:22So, of course,
31:23almost five times
31:23as much.
31:25From 2006
31:27to 2007,
31:28the violence
31:28in Afghanistan
31:29increased 30%.
31:30Number of suicide
31:32bombings in Afghanistan
31:33in 2001,
31:3421.
31:35Number of suicide
31:36bombings in 2006,
31:38139,
31:39with an additional
31:40increase of 69%
31:41as of November
31:422007.
31:45How you like me now?
31:46Okay, so let's look
31:49at the environmental losses.
31:50This is something
31:50that is not really
31:51much understood,
31:53I think,
31:53in the media as a whole
31:54and among the population
31:55as a whole.
31:56This is what your labor
31:57is creating.
32:01So how much oil
32:02did the Earth military
32:02use in 2008
32:03in Iraq?
32:05At least as much
32:05as 1.2 million
32:08million cars
32:09on the road
32:10that year.
32:12It's an enormous
32:13amount of oil.
32:14We'll get to that
32:15in a second.
32:16So the targeting
32:17of industrial sites
32:17and armament factories
32:18causes acute pollution.
32:20And when you drop
32:20a bunker buster bomb
32:22into a site
32:24which uses chemicals,
32:24the chemicals
32:25will all get released
32:25into the air,
32:26the groundwater,
32:26the soil.
32:28Nine sites expected
32:29to be targets
32:30were named
32:30by the UK government
32:31as being involved
32:31in the production
32:32of chemical
32:32and biological weapons.
32:34And this is
32:35just terrible
32:36for the environment.
32:37So check this out.
32:38The amount of fuel
32:38that has been burned
32:39by military vehicles
32:40to keep the operation
32:40moving is massive.
32:42The US military
32:42has said that its planes,
32:43boats and tanks
32:44are consuming
32:4415 million gallons
32:45of fuel a day.
32:48Let's put this in context.
32:49The amount of fuel
32:50that the coalition
32:50is using in one day
32:51is the approximate amount
32:53that 1.1 billion people
32:54in India need to keep
32:55their whole economy
32:55going for the same
32:56amount of time.
32:58I want to read this again.
32:59It really has to sink in.
33:00The amount of fuel
33:01the coalition is using
33:02in one day
33:02is the approximate amount
33:04that 1.1 billion people
33:05in India need to keep
33:06their whole economy
33:07going for the same
33:08amount of time.
33:09How many environmentalists
33:10are talking about this,
33:13are protesting this?
33:14Well, no,
33:14because their lefty dude
33:16is in the office,
33:17so politics over people
33:19always sadly.
33:21So, Bush says
33:22that things are improving
33:23for Iraqis.
33:24Let's look at their environment.
33:25River damage,
33:26irrigation and drinking,
33:27water quality damage.
33:29Many of those industries
33:30that were devoted
33:32to producing military material
33:33have been bombed
33:34and looted,
33:35leaving the country
33:35dotted with highly toxic
33:36industrial zones.
33:38There's other contaminated sites
33:39that belong to the oil
33:40and metal industries.
33:41The Interpress Service
33:42news agency reported
33:43that there are a variety
33:43of environmental problems
33:44that continue to plague
33:45the country as a result
33:46of the fighting.
33:47Industrial waste,
33:48hospital waste,
33:49fertilizer runoff from farming
33:50as well as oil spills
33:51plague the two rivers
33:52that define the Mesopotamia region
33:53which provide much
33:54of the irrigation
33:55and drinking water.
33:56So, the destruction
34:01of the infrastructure
34:02has huge effects
34:04on public health.
34:05Bombed out industrial plants
34:06and factories
34:07have polluted groundwater
34:08the damage to sewage
34:08treatment plants
34:09with reports
34:10the raw sewage
34:12is forming massive pools
34:13of muck in the streets
34:14of Baghdad
34:14immediately after Bush's
34:15shock and awe campaign.
34:16It's also likely
34:17poisoning rivers
34:18as well as human life.
34:19Cases of typhoid
34:20among Iraqi citizens
34:21have risen tenfold
34:21since 1991
34:22largely due to
34:23polluted drinking water.
34:25Can't escape the war.
34:26Long after the bombs go off
34:27the war is still
34:28killing people.
34:30On the second day
34:31of President Bush's
34:32invasion of Iraq
34:32it was reported
34:33by the New York Times
34:34and the BBC
34:35that Iraqi forces
34:36had set fire
34:36to several of the country's
34:37large oil wells.
34:38This of course
34:39occurred in
34:40World War
34:42sorry
34:42in the first
34:43Gulf War as well.
34:45Five days later
34:46in the Romalia
34:48oil fields
34:48six dozen well heads
34:49were set ablaze
34:50at a rate of
34:5012 million dollars
34:51of oil per hour.
34:53The dense black smoke
34:54rose high into
34:54the southern sky of Iraq
34:55fanning a clear signal
34:56that the US invasion
34:57had again ignited
34:58environmental tragedy.
35:02Spilled oil
35:02in the Arabian Gulf
35:03the first Gulf War
35:04had horrific effects
35:05on the environment
35:06as CNN reported
35:07in 1999.
35:08Quote
35:08Iraq was responsible
35:10for intentionally
35:11releasing some
35:1111 million barrels
35:12of oil
35:12into the Arabian Gulf
35:13from January to May
35:141991
35:15oiling more than
35:16800 miles of
35:16Kuwaiti and Saudi
35:17Arabian coastlines.
35:19The amount of oil
35:19released was categorized
35:20as 20 times larger
35:21than the Exxon Valdez
35:22spill in Alaska
35:23and twice as large
35:24as the previous
35:25world record oil spill.
35:27Cost of the cleanup
35:28has been estimated
35:28more than 700 million dollars.
35:32The state gets
35:33a free pass
35:33I mean
35:33if a private industry
35:34had done this
35:35it would be
35:35all over the news
35:36all over
35:37every environmental site
35:38you can imagine
35:39but it's not well known
35:40this because
35:41it's the government
35:42so it's held
35:43to a different standard
35:43or rather to no standard.
35:46During the build up
35:47to George Bush's
35:47invasion of Raxadam
35:48loyalties promised
35:49to light oil fields
35:51afire
35:51hoping to expose
35:52what they claimed
35:53were the US's
35:53underlying motives
35:54for attacking
35:55their country
35:55oil.
35:57The UN calculated
35:58that out of Kuwait's
35:591330 active oil wells
36:01half had been set ablaze.
36:03The pungent fumes
36:03and smoke from
36:04these dark billowing
36:05flames spread
36:05for hundreds of miles
36:06and had horrible effects
36:07on human and
36:07environmental health.
36:09The resulting smoke
36:10was enough to block
36:11out the sun.
36:15Fallout from the
36:16Kuwait oil wells
36:17resulted in the
36:17average air temperature
36:18falling by 10 degrees
36:19Celsius or 18 degrees
36:20Fahrenheit while the
36:21oil well burned
36:22for over nine months.
36:24Oil, soot, sulfur
36:25and acid rain came
36:26down as far as
36:271900 kilometers
36:29or 1200 miles away
36:30and the vegetation
36:30and animals were
36:31poisoned while the
36:32water was contaminated
36:33and the people
36:33choked.
36:35The burning oil fields
36:36released almost half a
36:37billion tons of
36:38carbon dioxide.
36:40Worldwide, motor
36:41vehicles currently emit
36:41well over 900 million
36:42metric tons of CO2
36:44each year.
36:45These emissions
36:45account for more than
36:4615% of global
36:47fossil fuel CO2
36:48releases.
36:50The CO2 produced
36:51from the burning
36:52oil fields is the
36:52equivalent to the sum
36:53of the CO2 output
36:55for all of the cars
36:55in the world
36:56for over 200 days.
37:01So let's look at
37:02some of the indirect
37:03ecological consequences
37:04of the war.
37:07So this burning oil
37:08was laced with
37:09poisonous chemicals
37:09like mercury, sulfur
37:10and furans
37:11which can cause
37:12serious damage to
37:13human as well as
37:13ecosystem health.
37:14According to
37:16Friends of the Earth
37:17the fallout from
37:17burning oil debris
37:18like that of the
37:20first Gulf War
37:20has created toxic
37:21sea surface that
37:22has affected the
37:23health of birds
37:23and marine life.
37:25In the early 1990s
37:27the US drowned
37:27at least 80 crude
37:28oil ships to the
37:29bottom of the
37:29Persian Gulf
37:30partly to uphold
37:31the UN's economic
37:31sanctions against
37:32Iraq.
37:33Vast crude oil
37:34slicks formed
37:35killing an unknown
37:35quantity of aquatic
37:36life and seabirds
37:37while wreaking havoc
37:38on local fishing
37:40and tourist communities.
37:41The wars have also
37:42damaged forests,
37:43wetlands and
37:44marshlands in
37:44Afghanistan,
37:45Pakistan and
37:45Iraq.
37:47Total forest area
37:48decreased 38% in
37:49Afghanistan from
37:501990 to 2007.
37:51It's also mostly
37:52likely the case in
37:53Iraq.
37:57So this is some
37:59of the worst stuff.
38:00Months of bombings
38:01by US and British
38:02planes and cruise
38:03missiles also left
38:03behind an even more
38:04deadly and insidious
38:05legacy.
38:06Tons of shell casings,
38:07bullets and bomb
38:08fragments laced with
38:09depleted uranium.
38:10In all, the US hit
38:11Iraqi targets with
38:12more than 970
38:14radioactive bombs and
38:15missiles.
38:16What are the long-term
38:17consequences of these
38:18bombings?
38:19So when the tank
38:20busting bombs explode,
38:21the depleted uranium
38:22oxidizes into
38:23microscopic fragments
38:24that float through the
38:25air like carcinogenic
38:26dust carried on the
38:27desert winds for
38:28decades.
38:30The lethal bits,
38:30when inhaled,
38:31stick to the fibers of
38:32the lungs and
38:32eventually begin to
38:33wreak havoc on the
38:34body in the form of
38:35tumorous hemorrhages,
38:36ravaged immune systems
38:37and leukemia.
38:40So, 15 years
38:43later, after the
38:43first war, Iraqi
38:45physicians call it
38:46the white death.
38:48Since 1990, the
38:49incidence rate of
38:50leukemia in Iraq has
38:51grown by more than
38:52600%.
38:52The situation was
38:55compounded by Iraq's
38:56forced isolation and
38:57the sadistic sanctions
38:58regime, once described
38:59by former UN
39:00Secretary General
39:01Kofi Annan as a
39:02humanitarian crisis
39:03that made detection and
39:05treatment of the
39:05cancers all the more
39:06difficult.
39:06The leukemia rate in
39:09Sarajevo, pummeled by
39:10American bombs in
39:101996, tripled in the
39:12five years following
39:12the bombings.
39:14Depleted uranium has a
39:18half-life of more than
39:19four billion years,
39:20approximately the age of
39:21the earth.
39:24This is why people were
39:25cheering.
39:28Cancer damage,
39:28particularly to the
39:29young, for the next
39:31four billion years.
39:32A World Health
39:38Organization study
39:39published last year
39:39connected the grave
39:40situation with the
39:41effect of toxic
39:42substances prevalent in
39:43many conventional
39:44weapons.
39:45Hair samples taken from
39:46the civilian population
39:47of Fallujah showed
39:48levels of lead in
39:49children with birth
39:50defects five times
39:51higher than elsewhere.
39:53Mercury levels were
39:54recorded at six times
39:55higher.
39:57And what this does,
39:57of course, to
39:58children's developing
39:59brains and neurological
39:59systems is catastrophic.
40:01It's been associated
40:02with increased
40:02criminality in the U.S.
40:07Let's look up the
40:08loss of life.
40:14So, let's start with
40:16the domestic situation.
40:17Thirty percent of U.S.
40:18soldiers who served in
40:19the Iraq war developed
40:20serious mental health
40:21problems within four
40:21months of returning
40:22home.
40:26Four thousand four
40:27hundred and forty-eight
40:27U.S. soldiers who
40:28died and 32,200
40:31and twenty-one wounded.
40:32At least thirty-four
40:33hundred U.S.
40:34contractors died as
40:34well, a number barely
40:35mentioned or at least
40:37it's underreported.
40:38The mental health
40:39issues as well, my
40:41particular take on it
40:42is that you can deal
40:43with things that you've
40:43done wrong if
40:44restitution is possible.
40:46You know, like if I
40:47bump your car and pay
40:48you to get your car
40:49fixed and put in a
40:49little extra for your
40:50trouble, then I've
40:51created restitution and
40:52I can be free of guilt
40:53or negative feelings
40:54where restitution is
40:55impossible, I'm not
40:55sure that health can
40:57ever be fully achieved
40:58again.
40:58and what the
40:59soldiers have done
41:00in Iraq, there is
41:01no restitution for
41:02it.
41:08A 2011 survey
41:10conservatively
41:10estimated that
41:12between 800,000
41:14and a million
41:15Iraqi children have
41:17lost one or both
41:18parents.
41:23War is the
41:25decimation of
41:25families, of course
41:26we know that.
41:27And again, to put
41:27this in perspective,
41:28this would be 8
41:30million to 10
41:30million American
41:31children losing one
41:32or both parents to
41:33an invasion.
41:35What would that do?
41:37If you want to
41:37understand blowback,
41:38understand the
41:39feelings of rage
41:41that occurred after
41:419-11 multiplied by
41:42many thousands of
41:43times, stretch it
41:45over 10 years, and
41:48the amount of
41:49blowback is
41:50surprisingly low to
41:51America.
41:51So what
41:55percentage of
41:56participants
41:58willing or
41:58otherwise in
41:59the war are
42:00suffering from
42:00trauma-related
42:01psychological
42:01symptoms?
42:03U.S.
42:03soldiers returning
42:04home, 30%
42:04Iraqi children.
42:0770% of them are
42:08suffering from
42:08trauma-related
42:09psychological
42:09symptoms.
42:11And they do
42:12not have the
42:12kind of resources
42:13that the
42:13veterans have
42:14when they come
42:15home.
42:15Not even
42:16close.
42:1620% of
42:21injured soldiers
42:22suffered a
42:22spinal or
42:23brain injury.
42:25One of the
42:25salvations and
42:26tragedies of
42:26modern warfare is
42:27the degree to
42:28which combat
42:28injuries are
42:29survivable now
42:30due to
42:30increased medical
42:32response time
42:32and improved
42:33medical procedures.
42:35And so people
42:35who would have
42:36died in the
42:36past are now
42:37kept alive,
42:37though sometimes
42:38barely.
42:39after Iraq and
42:46Afghanistan.
42:47So researchers
42:48recently examined
42:48the post-deployment
42:49health assessments
42:50of almost a
42:51quarter of a
42:51million American
42:52soldiers returning
42:52from Iraq and
42:54over 16,000
42:55returning from
42:55Afghanistan.
42:57Soldiers who
42:58had served in
42:58Iraq were
42:59significantly more
42:59likely to suffer
43:00from a number of
43:01mental health
43:01concerns than
43:02those returning
43:02from Afghanistan.
43:04And you can
43:05read the numbers
43:06here.
43:06it's pretty
43:11brutal.
43:16War is toxic,
43:17of course,
43:17to people's
43:18mental health.
43:19You can't ever
43:20leave the war
43:21overseas.
43:23Multiple
43:23deployments
43:23increase combat
43:24stress from
43:2512% to the
43:27first deployment
43:28to 18% to the
43:30second deployment
43:31to 27% to the
43:32third or fourth
43:32deployment.
43:34Longer tours
43:34naturally increase
43:35soldiers' mental
43:35health problems.
43:36If you're deployed
43:37fewer than six
43:37months, you are
43:3915% likely to
43:40have a mental
43:40health problem.
43:42And if you're
43:42deployed for more
43:43than six months,
43:43it's 22%.
43:44And let's not
43:45forget the
43:45massive amounts
43:46of brain
43:48destructive drugs
43:49that are handed
43:50out to the
43:51soldiers to keep
43:52them going
43:53during these
43:56combat situations.
43:57This is an old
43:58practice.
43:58I mean, drugging
43:59soldiers goes back
44:00to the assassins
44:00of ancient
44:02empires.
44:02This is where
44:03hashish came from.
44:03They were given
44:04hashish to mask
44:05the psychological
44:06agony of being
44:07repeat murderers.
44:08And of course,
44:09you're getting a lot
44:10of SSRIs and
44:11other kinds of
44:12psychopharmacological
44:13drugs being handed
44:14out like candy to
44:15these soldiers just
44:16to keep them going
44:17and doing what
44:18they're doing,
44:18which has so many
44:20ripple effects that
44:21are negative down
44:21the road that it's
44:22hard to measure.
44:23Let's look at some
44:26of the views of
44:28the Iraq population.
44:29You know, they are
44:30the ones who, of
44:30course, were supposed
44:31to be saved.
44:34How safe do you
44:34feel in your
44:35neighborhood?
44:35Very safe, 26%
44:36not.
44:37Very safe, 41%
44:38not safe at all,
44:3833%.
44:39Do you oppose
44:42the presence of
44:43U.S. forces
44:44rising from
44:4604, 51%
44:47to 05,
44:4965%
44:50to 78%
44:51now?
44:53Violence against
44:54U.S. forces
44:54is acceptable.
44:55Only 12%
44:56believed it in the
44:56past, and 51%
44:58of people believed
44:58it later on.
45:00How are things
45:01overall in your
45:01life compared to
45:02before the war
45:03in spring 2000?
45:06And three,
45:07well, it's
45:09going down
45:10from 20%
45:11better.
45:13Now it's down
45:13to about 5%.
45:14As of 2007,
45:15it's much lower
45:16now, I would
45:16imagine.
45:17Again, I'm not
45:17going to read
45:18all of these off.
45:19Which of these
45:20are the greatest
45:21concerns to you?
45:22Carbombs,
45:23suicide attacks,
45:2438%,
45:24violence by
45:26U.S. forces,
45:2616%,
45:27fights,
45:29Iraqi government
45:29and anti-government
45:30forces,
45:3012%,
45:31fights from
45:31religious groups,
45:328%,
45:33kidnappings for
45:33ransom,
45:347%,
45:34snipers,
45:345%,
45:35violence by
45:35local militia,
45:374% violence
45:38by Iraqi
45:38police,
45:382% violence
45:39by Iraq
45:40army,
45:402%.
45:41They're much
45:41more afraid
45:41of the
45:42Americans
45:42and of the
45:43wars they
45:43provoke
45:43rather than
45:45their own
45:45people.
45:46So, what
45:51happens when
45:52defense becomes
45:53invasion, when
45:53defense becomes
45:54offense?
45:55Well, the
45:55decimated and
45:56infuriated population
45:57is all set for
45:57blowback.
45:59Approximately
45:592.8 million
46:00Iraqis out of a
46:01population of
46:0134 million are
46:02displaced internally
46:03or into
46:03neighboring states.
46:06Approximately
46:061.4 million are
46:07refugees to
46:08other countries,
46:091.3 million are
46:10internally displaced.
46:1190% of
46:14displaced Iraqis
46:15have no plans
46:15to return.
46:17How could
46:17you?
46:20The percent of
46:21Iraqis living in
46:22slum conditions
46:22tripled from
46:2317% prior to
46:24the 2003
46:25invasion to
46:2553% in
46:262010.
46:28Crucial
46:29health indicators
46:35in Iraq have
46:35drastically worsened.
46:36The infant
46:37mortality rate
46:38increased 150%
46:39from 1990 to
46:402005 the
46:41worst retrogression
46:42in that basic
46:42indicator of
46:43well-being in
46:44the entire
46:44world.
46:47As of 2006,
46:49an estimated
46:49160 to
46:50380 Iraqi
46:51professors have
46:52been killed and
46:53over 30% of
46:54Iraqis'
46:54professors,
46:55doctors,
46:55pharmacists,
46:56and engineers
46:56emigrated
46:57between 2003
46:58and 2007.
47:04In the Iraq
47:05War, soldiers
47:05die and
47:06civilians get
47:06murdered.
47:07These are the
47:07Iraq War
47:07deaths from
47:082004 to
47:082009.
47:10Coalition
47:11forces down
47:12at the
47:12very bottom
47:12here,
47:12Iraqi forces
47:13a little
47:14higher,
47:14insurgents a
47:15little higher,
47:16but as you
47:16can see,
47:17the vast
47:17majority are
47:18civilians.
47:20They did not
47:20choose the
47:21war, they did
47:22not choose their
47:22government, and
47:24they pay the
47:24price.
47:27Let's look at the
47:28distribution of
47:28death from
47:292003 to 2013.
47:31civilians 134,000,
47:36opposition forces
47:3736,000, other
47:41little pie slices
47:42and so on, but
47:42it is the
47:43civilians who
47:44get murdered the
47:44most in these
47:45wars.
47:46The idea that
47:47you're going to
47:47target non-civilians
47:49is ridiculous.
47:50Can't happen.
47:52Let's look at
47:53this through
47:53pixels.
47:53I'll just let
47:57you drink this
47:58in, there's not
47:58really any way to
47:59describe it in
48:00terms of audio.
48:04Civilians should be
48:05in red, really.
48:05This is from
48:09October 2010.
48:12This is taken
48:13from WikiLeaks
48:14documents.
48:16Iraqi deaths may
48:17total 600,000 just
48:19from 2003 to
48:192006.
48:21A study by the
48:21Johns Hopkins
48:22Bloomberg School of
48:22Public Health
48:23determined that the
48:23rate of violent
48:24deaths in Iraqi
48:25since the 2003
48:26invasion.
48:27Extrapolating from
48:27a survey of almost
48:282,000 households,
48:29the report estimates
48:30that 601,000
48:32N27 Iraqi
48:34civilians died in
48:35violence between
48:35March 2003 and
48:37this July, a
48:38figure far higher
48:39than other
48:39previous estimates.
48:49And who is
48:50responsible for
48:51these deaths?
48:5312.1%
48:54coalition, tiny
48:55percentage Iraqi,
48:5614.6%
48:57insurgents, 71.8%
48:59unknown.
48:59In Iraq, over
49:06100,000 prisoners
49:06have passed
49:07through the
49:07American-run
49:08detention system
49:08with prisoners
49:09not having any
49:10effective way to
49:10challenge their
49:11detention.
49:11In the first
49:12years of the
49:12war, many
49:13detainees were
49:13processed through
49:14the notorious
49:15Abu Qaray prison,
49:16housed over
49:178,000 prisoners
49:17at its peak in
49:182004.
49:20The International
49:21Red Cross
49:22estimated in
49:232004 that
49:24between 70 and
49:2590% of detainees in
49:26Iraq were
49:27innocent.
49:28In 2004,
49:29accounts of
49:30physical,
49:30psychological, and
49:31sexual abuse,
49:31including the
49:32torture, rape,
49:33sodomy, and the
49:33death of
49:34Abu Ghraib prisoners
49:34came to public
49:35attention.
49:37At least 108 such
49:38people have died in
49:39detention in the
49:39first four years of
49:40the war, and at
49:41least 80 more have
49:42died in subsequent
49:42years.
49:43This total war is not
49:44just Iraq.
49:48Here's an example.
49:50It's pulled fairly
49:51randomly.
49:52February 12, 2010,
49:53U.S. forces entered
49:53a village in the
49:54Bhaktia province in
49:55Afghanistan, and
49:56after surrounding a
49:57home where a
49:58celebration of a new
49:58birth was taking
49:59place, shot dead two
50:00male civilians,
50:01government officials,
50:02who exited the
50:02house in order to
50:03inquire why they had
50:04been surrounded, and
50:05then shot and killed
50:06three female relatives,
50:07a pregnant mother of
50:08ten, a pregnant
50:09mother of six, and a
50:10teenager.
50:11These U.S.
50:14Special Forces
50:15soldiers proceeded to
50:16dig the bullets out of
50:17their victims' bodies,
50:18then lied to their
50:18superiors about what
50:19had happened.
50:24When the Pentagon
50:25issued a statement on
50:25the raid, it claimed
50:26that the dead males
50:27were terrorists, the
50:28bodies of the three
50:29women had been found
50:30by U.S. forces bound
50:31and gagged inside the
50:31house, and suggested
50:33that the women had
50:33already been killed by
50:34the time the U.S.
50:35had arrived.
50:37After initially denying
50:37involvement or any
50:38cover-up in the
50:39deaths of three Afghan
50:41women during a badly
50:42bungled American
50:43special ops assault
50:44in February, the
50:45American-led military
50:46command in Kabul
50:47admitted late on
50:48Sunday that its
50:49forces had in fact
50:49killed the women
50:50during the nighttime
50:51raid.
50:53And then the people
50:53who did this, when
50:55shooting a pregnant
50:56woman, can you
50:57recover from that
50:58psychologically?
51:00What effect is that
51:00going to have on
51:02the vestiges of
51:03your humanity?
51:04these, again, these
51:12are direct and
51:12indirect deaths, but
51:13the direct body
51:13count puts the
51:14number of dead
51:15civilians between
51:17110, 937, 121, 227,
51:20but the opinion
51:20research business, an
51:22independent polling
51:22agency based in London
51:23has calculated the
51:24number of fatalities
51:25at over 1 million.
51:26These also, the dates
51:28of these are different,
51:29so this is why we have
51:30disparities.
51:30Baghdad, which contains
51:34roughly one-fifth of
51:35the country's
51:36population, has
51:38suffered roughly half
51:39of the recorded
51:39civilian deaths, or
51:40about 2.5 times more
51:41than the national
51:42average.
51:46Almost 15,000 or 13%
51:49of all documented
51:50civilian deaths were
51:51reported as being
51:52directly caused by the
51:53U.S.-led coalition.
51:54The report notes that
51:56of the 4,000 civilian
51:57victims of U.S.-led
51:58coalition forces for
51:59whom age data was
52:00available, of 1,200 or
52:04almost a third were
52:04children.
52:08Of the 45,779 victims
52:11for whom the IBC was
52:12able to obtain age
52:13data, almost 4,000 were
52:15children under the age
52:16of 18.
52:23So Phil Donoghue and
52:24Bill Myers could be
52:25considered the only two
52:26major TV news
52:27personalities who
52:28presented the viewpoints
52:28that challenged the
52:29rush to war in Iraq.
52:30General Electric and
52:36Microsoft were MSNBC's
52:39founders and defense
52:39contractors that went
52:40on to make tremendous
52:41profits from the war.
52:43An internal MSNBC memo
52:44leaked to the press
52:45stated that Phil Donoghue
52:46was hurting the image
52:47of the network.
52:48He would be a, quote,
52:50difficult public face for
52:51NBC in a time of war,
52:52the memo read.
52:53Donoghue was fired and
52:54never returned to the
52:55airwaves.
52:57Donoghue said of the
52:58pressure the network
52:59put on him near the
53:00end.
53:01It evolved into an
53:01absurdity.
53:02He continued, we were
53:03told we had to have two
53:04conservatives for every
53:05liberal on the show.
53:06I was considered a liberal.
53:08I could have Richard
53:08Pearl on Alone but not
53:10Dennis Kucinich.
53:11He felt the tremendous
53:12fear corporate media had
53:13for being on an unpopular
53:14side during the ramp up
53:15for a war.
53:16And let's not forget the
53:17General Electric's biggest
53:18customer at the time was
53:21Donald Rumsfeld.
53:25Almost everything you see
53:27is, with regards to state
53:30policy, is a commercial for
53:32evil to blind you to evil.
53:35It's a Trojan horse of blood
53:36inside a My Little Pony.
53:39Nobody sees the pain, he
53:40said.
53:40The war is sanitized.
53:42This is very true.
53:42So, there's no law that
53:46says that an American
53:48newspaper or website even
53:51or radio or television
53:54show, there's nothing to
53:56say that they can't
53:56broadcast or describe
53:57images of the dead.
53:59Can you imagine if USA
54:00Today had on its front
54:01page pictures of the
54:03Iraqi dead in one
54:04particular day where they
54:06could even be obtained?
54:07Can you imagine what
54:08would happen?
54:09This is the censorship
54:10that occurs without the
54:12state, simply as a
54:13result of brainwashing,
54:15as a result of
54:15programming, as a
54:16result of living inside
54:17the evil heart of a
54:19murderous empire.
54:20This is what people
54:22cannot talk about.
54:24And this is partly why,
54:25is that the media
54:26profits from wars.
54:28The media relies on
54:29information, frankly
54:30misinformation, handed
54:31to them by the
54:31government, which means
54:32that if the media
54:33questions that, their
54:34sources dry up, they
54:35can't get the material
54:36without expensive and
54:37potentially lawsuit
54:38inducing investigations.
54:40And so what you're
54:42fed is propaganda.
54:44It's ridiculous, and
54:46it's brutal, and it's
54:47evil, and it's
54:48inevitable when the
54:49government gets this
54:49much power, which is
54:51fundamentally, all of
54:52this is predicated on
54:53the power to control
54:54currency.
54:55The power to print
54:55money is what makes
54:57all of this evil
54:57possible.
54:58The anti-war movement
54:59would be even stronger
55:01if people were to have
55:03their taxes increased in
55:04a ratio proportionate to
55:06the amount of violence
55:07and debt that was being
55:07run into.
55:08But because the
55:09government can print
55:10money, people are not
55:12directly hit in the
55:13wallet by these acts
55:14of evil, and the
55:15effects show up in a
55:17variety of other means
55:18like housing crashes,
55:19unemployment, that
55:19fewer than 1,000 to 1
55:21in 10,000 people can
55:22connect back to the
55:22war itself.
55:25So here's some
55:27examples.
55:27I mean, have you seen
55:28these pictures?
55:30Do you know what is
55:30happening in your name
55:32with your money
55:32overseas?
55:34And do you
55:35understand, do you
55:37fundamentally understand
55:38that the people
55:39overseas see the
55:43American Country Music
55:44Awards, they see the
55:45Oscars, they see the
55:47television shows, they
55:48see the reality shows
55:49in America, they see
55:50people dancing in the
55:51streets, they see
55:52parades, they see
55:53everything occurring in
55:54the empire with the
55:56consciousness really and
55:57the moral sensitivity of
55:59a marathon runner who
56:00doesn't even notice that
56:01he stepped on an ant.
56:04The view from outside
56:05the empire is essential
56:07to understand if you
56:09want to understand how
56:09the world is, why the
56:10world is, and what
56:11happens in terms of
56:12backlash.
56:14There's no law that
56:15prevents you from seeing
56:15these images, there's
56:16no rule that prevents
56:18these from being
56:18published, but to
56:20disturb the tender
56:22orchid-based hothouse
56:23flower sensitivities of
56:25people inside the
56:26empire, to disturb them
56:27with any kind of truth
56:27is really unthinkable
56:29for almost all media
56:30outlets.
56:30You must be protected
56:32from these images, you
56:33must be shielded from
56:36the truth of what is
56:36being done with your
56:37money and in your
56:38name.
56:39But until we see this,
56:41until we recognize this,
56:42until we accept this,
56:45it will continue.
56:47You can't ever fight
56:49evil.
56:50Once it's identified as
56:51evil, it loses its
56:52power.
56:52You can only fight the
56:53evil that pretends to
56:54be good.
56:54You can only fight the
56:57violence that pretends
56:58to be virtue.
56:59And the only thing you
57:02can do is to reveal it
57:02for what it is, the
57:04brutal and sociopathic
57:05disassembly of human
57:07beings, largely innocent,
57:08who had no control over
57:10the invasion, over their
57:11own government, over the
57:12resources that are there,
57:13no control over what is
57:14happening, and that we,
57:17as citizens, have more in
57:18common with the Iraqis than
57:19our own masters, because
57:21because we're both subject
57:22to state power.
57:29I don't really have a
57:30conclusion, but I really
57:32do appreciate you sticking
57:33with the content of the
57:35presentation.
57:36It's very, very important
57:36to understand.
57:37Please send this to people
57:38who are losing track of the
57:39war or who are distracted
57:40by their own woes.
57:43Looking at the woes that
57:44the American economy is
57:45facing can't really be
57:47solved, can't really be
57:48understood without looking
57:48at the horrors that are
57:49being inflicted overseas
57:51and the degree to which
57:52the media is keeping this
57:53information from you.
57:54Please send this around.
57:55This is why people are
57:57unemployed.
57:58This is why the economy is
57:59collapsing.
58:00This is why there are
58:01terror attacks.
58:02This is why all of this
58:02is occurring.
58:04And if you don't
58:04understand this and
58:05what's happening and the
58:06view from outside the
58:07empire, the empire will
58:09never end.
58:12This is Tefan Molyneux.
58:13Please drop by
58:13freedominradio.com.
58:14I will put sources to this
58:16in the low bar below the
58:17video and in the notes of
58:18the podcast.
58:19FDRURL.com forward slash
58:21hell if you would like to
58:22get more of the sources for
58:23this.
58:23Thank you so much for your
58:25patience in this
58:25presentation and open your
58:28eyes in order to stay safe.
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