Iraq War Turns 6

Late night March 19 and early morning March 20 of 2003 launched America's illegal and aggressive war against the Iraq. Six years on, through bombings, Abu Gharibs, displacement and a shattered infrastructure, it's uncertain whether this holy crusade was directed solely upon the Iraqi regime or the Iraqi people--who themselves have repeatedly called for an end to occupation and find shoe-throwers more heroic than US soldiers. The recent inheritors of this imperial ambition have declared the war will end...in time. Though it seems that with a sprawling embassy and a call for retaining residual forces, the imperial footprint of American hegemony never really plans on leaving completely.

So at 6 years, what have we got to show out of this colonial misadventure?

More beneath the fold...



Iraq at 6

Cost of war: $655 billion in allocated funds.

Documented civilian deaths: between 91,121 and 99,500.

Estimated Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion: 1.3 million.

Iraqi civilians killed in February 2009: 346 (including 11 children).

US casualties: 4,259 deaths: 31,131 wounded in action.

US troops deployed to Iraq since 2003: 513,000; deployed more than once: 197,000; deployed three or more times: 53,000.

US soldiers who committed suicide in January 2009: as many as 24, the highest monthly total since the Army started keeping those stats in 1980.

Iraqi unemployment rate: 18 percent; for men ages 15-29: 28 percent.

Iraqi female labor force participation: 17 percent.

Journalists killed in Iraq: 138

Estimated number of Iraqis displaced since 2003: 5 million, nearly 20 percent of the total population.

Iraqi prison population: 15,100 in US custody; 35,000 in Iraqi custody.

Average hours of electricity per day in Iraq: 13.3



*Information from The Nation April 6, 2009 edition.