in sight. Ghani visited the Pentagon during his time in Washington, as well as Arlington National Cemetery, where he laid a wreath of flowers to honour the fallen US soldiers.
‘Body Count’ provides a startling update to the previously widely accepted estimate of casualties from the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that which the public, experts and decision makers are aware. ... And this is only a conservative estimate,” the report stated. “The total number of deaths in the three countries ... could also be in excess of two million, whereas a figure below one million is extremely unlikely.”
The report, writes former UN Deputy Secretary-General Hans von Sponeck in its introduction, “must be seen as a significant contribution to narrowing the gap between reliable estimates of victims of war, especially civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and tendentious, manipulated or even fraudulent accounts. These have in the past blurred the picture of the magnitude of death and destitution in these three countries.” Von Sponeck – who, in 1957, was one of West Germany’s first conscientious objectors – also served as the UN‘s Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq at the time when crushing sanctions were killing thousands of people in that country. He resigned in protest of the sanctions.
We have not heard former POW Bowe Bergdahl explain, in his own words, how or why he left his post that June night in 2009. If he is subjected to the same military ‘justice’ that Chelsea Manning received, we may be denied access to Bergdahl’s voice completely through the trial. In Manning’s court-martial, his voice was only heard because of a leaked, clandestinely made recording. The late Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings reported on Bergdahl, quoting emails from Bowe to his parents, before he was captured, that were harshly critical of the U.S. occupation. Bowe wrote, “I am sorry for everything here.”
Afghan President Ghani honoured thousands of US military dead at Arlington National Cemetery. Will his gesture inspire President Obama, or his successor, to travel to the many cemeteries swollen with war dead in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan?
Originally appeared as: ‘The Costs of War, the Price of Peace’.
Courtesy: Commondreams.org