The Iraq Status of Forces Agreement [SOFA] calls for “the withdrawal of combat forces from the cities, villages and localities” no later than June 2009, with the balance of troops to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The agreement made between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq went into effect on January 1, 2009.
Since that date there have been 199 Iraqi citizens killed – 61 in January, 64 in February and with 2/3 of the month of March to go there have already been 74 deaths in March.
What I fail to understand is the lack of interest in the number of civilians that have died in Iraq, at our hands. As you can see by the article written in 2004, it was estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by coalition forces since the beginning of the war [March 19,2003]. Six years have passed since the war began and civilians are still being slain in the streets of Iraq.
There are people in this country that become enraged at the thought of a young mother who doesn’t want a child having an abortion, yet fail to bat an eyelash at the murders that are taking place in Iraq. Why is the right to life in Iraq so much different than the right to life in the United States?
The Iraqi people have done nothing to us. They were not behind 911, nor have they taken any action to harm the residents of our country, yet many of them die for no reason other than the United States made a mistake and thought they had weapons of mass destruction.
How many more Iraqi citizens are going to die because of our unacceptable error?
At the end of March, Britain will begin withdrawing the balance of 4,000 combat troops stationed in Basra. The withdrawal will be completed by the end of July 2009, with a few hundred personnel remaining to train Iraqi police.
Has the sectarian killing increased because we will not be able to meet the June 2009 date, or has the sectarian killing increased because we are leaving?
How many more bodies will it take to determine the answer to that question?
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