The first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war suggests that at least 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since their country was invaded in March 2003.

More than half of those who died were women and children killed in air strikes, researchers say.
(Source: The Independent)

One hundred thousand dead. One hundred thousand.

Nearly a fortnight ago, I marched in an antiwar demo of around 100,000 people. I remember the sea of faces, the surges and knots of protesters along the route to Trafalgar Square.

I’m trying to imagine that number of people dead. It’s very difficult. The population of Derby is 226,000. So, imagine walking round Derby and everywhere you go, the streets are littered with the corpses of nearly half the population. It’s hard to keep in your head, isn’t it? But what about the proud boasts of Bush and Blair, the claims that things have got better for the average Iraqi now we’ve got rid of Hussein?

The study, which was carried out in 33 randomly-chosen neighbourhoods of Iraq representative of the entire population, shows that violence is now the leading cause of death in Iraq. Before the invasion, most people died of heart attacks, stroke and chronic illness. The risk of a violent death is now 58 times higher than it was before the invasion.
(Source: The Guardian)

I’m trying very hard no to cry as I type this, to keep making sense. I’m so furious, I can’t put it into words adequately. I cannot believe that Butcher Blair is still in power, still spouting his lies and still smiling, sitting on top of the pile of Iraqi corpses he created. Of course, I’m outraged by the actions of Bush and the PNAC Nazis too. But they’re not leading my country, Blair and his New Labour scum are.

Bush and Blair: two righteous, pious Christians. Is their God pleased with their slaughter? Will he shake their blood-caked hands when they get to heaven? Does killing so many innocents, so many women and children, guarantee them a seat next to their Lord?

The world is insane. It keeps on ticking over, football matches and Hollyoaks, parliamentary blustering and EU scandals, the illusion of normality, the lie of sanity. But all the while, our troops are pounding the Iraqi people into the ground.

The bones of 100,000 Iraqi dead will form a tiny line in the layers of the Earth. Maybe future archaeologists will puzzle at such mass murder. Perhaps they’ll pore over the remains, re-assembling babies’ skulls. Will they be able to tell, with their microscopes and fine tweezers, that these bones were liberated bones? The bones of Iraqis granted their freedom from Hussein and, unfortunately, life by the intrepid US and UK forces?

The biggest death toll recorded by the researchers was in Falluja, which registered two-thirds of the violent deaths they found. “In Falluja, 23 households of 52 visited were either temporarily or permanently abandoned. Neighbours interviewed described widespread death in most of the abandoned houses but could not give adequate details for inclusion in the survey,” they write.
(Source: The Guardian)

And why has Britain re-deployed its troops recently? Why, to free up US forces so they can increase their level of attack on Fallujah. How long before the US adopts the Israeli government tactic and just bulldozers Fallujah to the ground, tiresome occupants and all? But of course, our TV news keeps telling us that the people being killed by us are all “insurgents.” Yes. Anyone troublesome, anyone questioning why there are foreign armies occupying their homeland and running their country is an “insurgent,” aren’t they? It’s such a conveniently vague term. So, I guess the 50,000 women and children killed must have been hardline “insurgents,” eh?

Alan Simpson, a member of Labour Against the War, said: “Iraq has not seen this scale of slaughter since its war with Iran. At some point, the slaughter of civilians in the name of peace has to become a crime of war. This is not a matter of indifference but criminality. These figures are horrific, but it is a scandal that the world remains silent.”
(Source: The Independent)

If today’s death toll figures don’t change Britain and America, we’re beyond hope. If this report doesn’t shock people into protest and action, then those people aren’t actually alive in the first place.

At this time, nothing matters more than our illegal occupation and murder of Iraq. Nothing, not your petty concerns about your money our your sex life, not TV or music or who said what about who. All of that is shit, all of that is totally irrelevant.

We have to wake up out of this nightmare. We have to wake up and do something to stop Butcher Blair.

It’s exactly 1pm. The BBC TV News has just started and what’s the top story? That cunt Blair signing the EU constitution, along with all the other powerful politicos who care so little about ordinary people’s lives.

Obviously, 100,000 Iraqi dead isn’t as important as a fancy ceremony that means fuck-all.

EDIT…
It’s just come on now. Third story down. After the EU story and a story about fraud. Obviously, mass murder is less important than fraud.