February 23, 2003

To 500,000 Iraqis (*)

It is you, you, and you who will soon be killed

By American bombs, missiles, tanks and guns

Stop hoping that it will surely be somebody else

That you, by chance, will escape the dreaded fate

Within months you will die before your time

Made immobile, silenced, brushed away

So the victors can stomp on your wealthy land

Westernize your leaders and call it democracy

Were you sure you are among the future victims

What would you do? How angry would you be?

Would you rise en masse, all 500,000 of you?

Hold hostage all now complicit to the crime?

Only the hope that death is reserved for others

Keeps you plodding now with your daily life

Fearful, compliant, making plans for the future

Trusting God will save you because you are you

The denial that it will be us

Keeps us in line, like sheep

Both in the country to be raped

And the country of the aggressor.

Note

(*) 500,000 is a low-end estimate of the number of violent civilian casualties likely to occur during the anticipated a war on Iraq. For purposes of comparison, the 1991 Gulf war B which did not entail a fight for Baghdad B incurred 100,000 - 200,000 civilian casualties (Zunes, Stephen, Tinderbox B U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage, Monroe, Maine), 2003.

The above figures do not include non-violent civilian casualties. A United Nations document published earlier this month estimates that, in the eventuality of war, 30 percent of Iraqi children under five years B that is, over one million children B would be at risk of death from malnutrition. This represents half of the 60 percent of Iraqi children under five who are presently dependent on governmental food rations. Should the governmental structure disintegrate, as anticipated during a conflict, these children would have no other source of nutrition (Dr. Glen Rangwala, Lecturer, University of Cambridge, U.K., Counterspin, 02/24/03. See www.fair.org and www.casi.org.uk).

If nuclear bombs are used, the number of casualties would, of course, be much higher, both due to delayed deaths from radiation exposure and death of future children from congenital malformations.

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