By James Cogan, WSWS.org, 2 January 2008
Media reports about New Year parties in parts of Baghdad cannot disguise the fact that Iraqis have little to look forward to in 2008, and even less to celebrate about 2007. Last year was yet another of death, destruction and suffering. Even the incomplete data complied by the Associated Press — which only include reported deaths and exclude so-called insurgents who were killed in combat with US and Iraqi government forces — show that at least 18,610 civilians died as a result of violence. Tens of thousands more deaths were caused by the effects of malnutrition, unsafe drinking water, depleted uranium contamination and a dysfunctional health system.
2007 will be remembered as the year in which the British-based polling agency ORB estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis had been killed under the US occupation, substantiating the death toll previously calculated by scientists working with Johns Hopkins University. It will also go down as the year when more than one million Iraqis were forced to flee their homes to escape the sectarian violence fomented and encouraged by the policies of US imperialism. The “surge” of 30,000 additional US troops to the country between March and June was accompanied by arguably the worst ethnic-communal cleansing in Iraq’s modern history.
Press Freedom Plunged in Last Five Years
At least 86 journalists, predominantly from Iraq, were killed in 2007. This death toll represents a 244 percent increase over the last five years, says Reporters Without Borders.