Former IAEA chief: Iraq war killed “a million innocent civilians”

"The former head of the UN’s chief nuclear agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, said in an interview with the British newspaper Guardian Wednesday that those who launched the war in Iraq were responsible for killing a million innocent people and could be held accountable under international law. He was clearly referring to US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and their top military and security aides.

It was his first interview with an international publication since ElBaradei returned to his native Egypt, after a decade heading the International Atomic Energy Agency, where he won the Nobel Peace Prize, in large measure because of his opposition to the efforts by the Bush administration to use concocted charges about “weapons of mass destruction” as an all-purpose pretext for military intervention throughout the Middle East.

“I would hope that the lessons of Iraq, both in London and in the US have started to sink in,” he told the Guardian. “Sure, there are dictators, but are you ready every time you want to get rid of a dictator to sacrifice a million innocent civilians? All the indications coming out of [the Chilcot inquiry in Britain] are that Iraq was not really about weapons of mass destruction but rather about regime change, and I keep asking the same question―where do you find this regime change in international law? And if it is a violation of international law, who is accountable for that?”

This suggestion that Bush and Blair were guilty of war crimes, coming from a high-ranking former UN official, would ordinarily be considered major news. The Guardian interview was reported by the main British and French news agencies, Reuters and AFP, but the entire American corporate media gave it zero coverage. Not a single major American newspaper or television network mentioned it."

More...http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/bara-a03.shtml

Ultimately, Saddam and the Ba'ath party and those continuing the violence are responsible.

I wonder if anyone can find a single instance of an American wiring himself up to a bomb and blowing himself up in a marketplace or a mosque or a school and killing innocent people?

They couldn't really do it while Saddam was in power.

They don't give it coverage because it is crap.

Bush should be in trouble for killing innocent americans via 9-11.

It is a conspiracy, not a theory.

i can think of at least one where an american blew up innocent people, but was too cowardly to include himself

of course, he got the death penalty after, so I guess he DID kill himself(indirectly)

I am certain if our country was invaded and occupied we would have many tea partiers doing just that.

Israel did not come about because of invasion and there never was a "palestinian state" in transjordan or the ottoman empire...

there is no excuse for bus bombings, indiscriminate rocket launches at civilian targets, cafe and marketplace and subway bombings, teaching hate to elementary school students, recruiting suicide bombers from grieving families, paying people to blow innocent people up, and killing and torturing your political enemies....

just saying...

sorry slowhand this is the Iraq war thread. I do not think their were many suicide bombings in Iraq untill we illegaly invaded it. Its unfortunate to say this but with all these civilian deaths I am sure most the Iraqi people feel they were better off under Saddam.

Oh yeah - Iraq.

Sunnis don't like Shia? Don't want to be governed democratically
by their elected government?

There still is no excuse for suicide bombers.

Iraqis feel they were better off under Saddam?

About 90 percent of Iraqis feel the situation in the country was better before the U.S.-led invasion than it is today, according to a new ICRSS poll.

The findings emerged after house-to-house interviews conducted by the ICRSS during the third week of November. About 2,000 people from Baghdad (82 percent), Anbar and Najaf (9 percent each) were randomly asked to express their opinion. Twenty-four percent of the respondents were women.

Only five percent of those questioned said Iraq is better today than in 2003. While 89 percent of the people said the political situation had deteriorated, 79 percent saw a decline in the economic situation; 12 percent felt things had improved and 9 percent said there was no change. Predictably, 95 percent felt the security situation was worse than before.
http://www.nowpublic.com/90_of_iraqis_say_they_were_better_off_under_saddam_hussein

this poll is a little stale and/or rancid



"90% of Iraqis say they were better off under Saddam Hussein"

by Dave Ward | December 30, 2006 at 12:57 am

more recent and quite probably a more objective picture:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6451841.stm

now, it is crappy in iraq. no doubt about it. it is pretty much
up to the iraqis themselves to learn to live together and rebuild
a country in which they can all live peacefully if not harmoniously.

From your source....................................................

Since the end of the war in Iraq, thousands of civilians have died in violence on the streets. Support for the coalition forces based in Iraq is low - with 82% expressing a lack of confidence in them and 69% thinking they had made the security situation worse.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6451841.stm

Iraqis Say They Were Better Off Under Hussein
January 03, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many adults in Iraq believe the coalition effort has been negative, according to a poll by the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies and the Gulf Research Center. 90 per cent of respondents think the situation in their country was better before the U.S.-led invasion.

The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 3,000 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 22,500 troops have been wounded in action.

There has been no official inquiry on the actual number of Iraqi casualties. A volunteer group of British and U.S. academics and researchers—known as Iraq Body Count (IBC)—estimates that more than 52,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the military intervention.

In December 2005, Iraqi voters renewed their National Assembly. In May 2006, Shiite United Iraqi Alliance member Nouri al-Maliki officially took over as prime minister.

The survey was conducted in November 2006, before the publication of the Iraq Study Group's findings in the United States, and Hussein's execution for crimes against humanity. Late last month, Al-Maliki called on the "followers of the ousted regime" to "reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands to help in rebuilding Iraq."

Polling Data

Do you feel the situation in the country is better today or better before the U.S.-led invasion?

Better today
5%

Better before
90%

Not sure
5%

Source: Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies / Gulf Research Center
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 2,000 Iraqi adults in Baghdad, Anbar and Najaf, conducted in late November 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

Its a straight up quistion better or worse.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/14282

3 year old polls don't say anything at all about the feelings today.

I'm sure the Shite majority would be just delighted to go back to Saddam's Abu Graib prison days.

well,, instead of one dictator now they have thousands of militant nutbags....at least saddam had control

the "militant nutbags" are one sector of the iraqi population!



many of them were the ones persecuted for their religious
beliefs under Saddam.

PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS GH BUSH GW BUSH DICK CHANEY .. AND THE LACKEYS UNDER THEM . there was no war before GH BUSH sent a dumb blonde out to do the nations business and she told hussiem we didn't care if he went to war with kuwiet sandu araba . And of course we did care .
Then little moron came in and wanted to get even for big daddy in his mind [ little that there is] . then 4000 plus good americans died because of those igos . None worth even 1 man let alone over 4000 .and the total keeps growing .