Platitudes and tough talk slide easily off a slick tongue.

Truth is tougher and harder to come by: Beware Belligerents Feigning Outrage at home while Killing native sons and daughters abroad

U.S. President Donald Trump speaking at the “38th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service”

California Police Officer Ronil Singh, the president said, “came to this country legally in 2003 with the dream of earning the badge of an American police officer. … And that’s exactly what Ronil did: He devoted his life to defending the laws of our country....”

Two Immigrants: California police officer Ronil Singh was a native South Pacific islander, the Republic of Fiji.. His accused shooter was a native North American, Mexico. It takes only one “caught” instance of crime to make a man or woman a criminal under U.S. law. Many criminals are never caught. Many are never called “criminal.”

The president declared that “Dangerous criminals must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That’s the only language they understand.”

The alleged shooter, the president said, “was a vicious killer, this man that crossed into our country from the border just a little while before. A vicious killer that could’ve been kept out with border security, with the wall (an opportunist never misses an opportunity to push his politics), with whatever the hell it takes …, could’ve been kept out.”

Police officers like any other workers have a job to do and in dangerous work they accept the risks. A particular risk is the nature of the job of policing, which is not to excuse the threat or the slaying of anyone anywhere any time.   

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ut let us take a look, compare the risk and slaughter of innocents who never had a chance to choose — never knew and never accepted even the possibility that the mere act of sitting in their homes, attending a wedding, or stepping from their doors for any reason on any morning or evening would spell death and destruction.

United States Leadership’s Participation in 

Death and Destruction on both sides of the Red Sea

from the Gulf of Aden to the Mediterranean Sea

Somalia (Horn of Africa) to Syria 

1948 –present, and continuing

Palestine (“Arab–Israeli conflict” “Arab League vs. Israel and USA” in Middle East 1948–present): deaths 116,074+

Iran-Iraq War (amidst U.S.–Iran military tension, U.S. sided with Iraq, September 22, 1980-August 20, 1988) losses estimated: deaths 105,000–375,000 (other death estimates 250,000–500,000), wounded in action (WIA) 400,000, prisoners of war (POW) 70,000; Economic loss: $561 billion

Global WARs targeting Middle East 2001 –

War on Terror (aka Global War on Terrorism) 2001–present (worldwide): 272,000–1,260,000 

Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan (part of War on Terror, 2001–present): 47,246–61,603 

U.S. War in Afghanistan: 2001-2019 and continuing: 

• “31,000+ civilian deaths due to war-related violence”; “29,900” wounded civilians; “111,000+” Afghans killed in the conflict (incl civilians, soldiers and militants) 
• The Cost of War project (Brown University) reporting: “Since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, “about 26,270 civilians killed by direct war-related violence,”  “more than 29,900 civilians have been injured”; 
• Factoring in ratios of “indirect to direct deaths in contemporary conflicts,” the figure could reach as high as “360,000.”

Pakistan

War in North-West Pakistan (Pakistan/USA/UK vs. Terrorist groups aka “War in Waziristan” 2004–present, part of War on Terror and War in Afghanistan 2001–present): 45,852–78,946 

Iraq

Iraq Wars (aka Second Gulf War, part of “War on Terror”) 2003–2011: 176,913–1,120,000 

Iraqi Civil War (also Iraq and allies vs. ISIL” 2014–2017 [continuing total casualties not yet tallied]): 75,000+

U.S. War on Iraq and its People 2003 – 2019 and continuing; absolute count uncertain, numbers vary: ♦♦♦ March 2003-February 2019: 183,249 – 205,785 civilian deaths from violence (Iraq Body Count project) ♦♦♦ January 2004-December 2009: 109,032 deaths including 66,081 civilian deaths (Classified Iraq War Logs) ♦♦♦ March 2003-April 2009: 110,600 violent deaths (Associated Press)

Yemen 

Saudi-U.S. Blockade of Yemen ● Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen ● Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)

Y

emen Famine 2016 – present

• Total deaths: More than 85,000 children (adults unknown)

• Death rate: est. 130 children per day (December 2016–November 2017)

• Death rate since November 2017 unknown but more cases of famine and severe malnourishment reported during 2018

More than “17 million of Yemen’s population are at risk”

More than “3.3 million children and pregnant or lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition”

More than 100,000 of the affected children are in Al Hudaydah Governorate, with the city of Al Hudaydah worst affected area of the province

Famine compounded by cholera outbreak: 5,000 new cases daily

U.S.-allied Saudi-led coalition air strikes have devastated Yemen’s infrastructure including food infrastructure, health, water and sanitation systems and facilities thus leading to the spread of cholera.

Other related and consequences: Cultivation and consumption of khat (as plant from coca leaves can cause drug abuse, psychological dependence; Food confiscation by Houthi rebels

Related to Houthi insurgency (aka known “Sa’dah War” from 2004): casualties:  25,000+ 

Somalia

War and Conflict 2006: United States-backed Ethiopian military “intervention” 

“Somali Civil War” 2009–present (Federal Government of Somalia forces backed by African Union peacekeepers against “various militant terrorist groups and factions”) 

Estimated deaths by 2012: 8,016

Variable Losses reported by October 2012: 756 killed, 367 wounded; 1,100–3,000+ killed, 3 killed, 3 wounded, 66+ killed, Puntland 17+ killed, 40 wounded; Ethiopia: 8 killed; United States: 2 killed, 3 wounded

Libya 2011-2012 continuing

U./S./NATO March 19, 2011 military intervention in (i.e., invasion of) Libya, “ostensibly to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973”

2011-2012 Casualties/Deaths (Military Leader and President Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi is assassinated; after which carnage, conflict, displacement continues into 2019

Libyan Casualty Estimates

• May14: NATO air strike hits a large number of people gathered for Friday prayers in the eastern city of Brega leaving 11 religious leaders dead, 50 others wounded

• May 24: NATO air strikes in Tripoli kill 19 civilians, wound 150 (Libyan state television report)

• May 31: NATO strikes left up to 718 civilians dead (Libya reports)

• June 19: NATO air strikes hit a residential house in Tripoli, killing seven civilians (Libyan state television)

• June 20: NATO airstrike in Sorman, near Tripoli, kills fifteen civilians (Libyan government); Eight rockets apparently hit the compound of a senior government official, in an area where NATO confirmed operations had taken place.

• June 25: NATO strikes on Brega hit a bakery and a restaurant, killing 15 civilians and wounding 20 more (Libyan state television); report further accused the coalition of ‘crimes against humanity.’ (NATO denies but offers no casualty reports)

• June 28: NATO airstrike on the town of Tawergha, 300 km east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli kills eight civilians.

• July 20: NATO attacks Libyan state TV, Al-Jamahiriya. Three journalists killed.

• July25: NATO airstrike on a medical clinic in Zliten kills 11 civilians (NATO denies)

• August 9: 85 civilians are killed in a NATO airstrike in Majer, a village near Zliten (Libyan government report)

• September 15: Libyan President Gaddafi’s spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, declares NATO air strikes killed 354 civilians and wounded 700 others, while 89 other civilians were supposedly missing; and since September 1: 2,000+ civilians had been killed by NATO air strikes (NATO denies)

T

he government of Muammar al-Gaddafi, military officer and president of Libya, was overthrown and he was assassinated in Sirte, Libya, October 20, 2011, 

An occasion U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found hysterically funny.  

• March 2, 2012: United Nations Human Rights Council releases report about the aftermath of the Libyan civil war, concluding that in total 60 civilians were killed, 55 wounded by the NATO air campaign.

• May 2012 Human Rights Watch publishes report saying least 72 civilians were killed.

Syria

(Syrian Civil War aka Syrian Arab Republic vs. Republic of Syria vs. ISIL vs. Syrian Democratic Forces 2011–present):  560,000+ 

U

.S. President Donald Trump tells his captive audience

“Every American child deserves to grow up in a community that’s secure and safe from violence, and free of fear.”

T

ranslation:

The children of Gaza and Syria and Libya and Iraq and Iran and Somalia and Palestine and Yemen and Afghanistan and Pakistan do not “deserve to grow up” in  communities that are “secure and safe from violence and free of fear.”

How Sad.

Sources

The White House

“Remarks by President Trump at the 38th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service” U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.11:50 A.M. EDT Issued on: May 15, 2019 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-38th-annual-national-peace-officers-memorial-service/

Wikipedia

Casualties of Iraq War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

Civilian Casualties in War in Afghanistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#Civilian_and_overall_casualties_(2013)

List of Wars by Death Toll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll

Iran-Iraq War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War

Somali Civil War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Civil_War_(2009%E2%80%93present

2011 Military Intervention in Libya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya

Famine in Yemen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Yemen_(2016%E2%80%93present)

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