200 Eyes for an Eye

by Henri Picciotto

In the mind of some Americans, the occupation of Iraq is revenge for the attack on September 11, 2001. This is of course absurd, since Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

The images below attempt to compare the casualties in those two horrible episodes of early 21st century history, in the hope of evoking some sympathy among Americans for the unfathomable suffering of the Iraqi people in the wake of the U.S. invasion.

In these figures, each white spot represents 3000 deaths.

United States, September 11, 2001: approximately 3000 deaths in a population of approximately 300,000,000.

Iraq, 2003 to 2006: very probably at least 600,000 deaths in a population of approximately 30,000,000.

Remember the pain caused by 3 planes crashing into buildings on 9/11. Imagine it had been 60 planes, distributed among all the states of the U.S. Taking into account the relative size of the total population, that would have amounted to 1% of the deaths Iraq has suffered in this war.

The statistics of the January 2009 war in Gaza are comparable: 100 eyes for an eye. 1300 Palestinians dead, 13 Israelis. And this does not take into account the wounded, the destruction of the infrastructure, the lack of access to basic necessities, etc. Like in Iraq, most of the casualties were inflicted by weapons made in the USA.

Vietnam Memorial