Week 10: War

Sometimes it’s good to look at the bigger picture. In terms of war, though, sometimes we spend too much time thinking about this bigger picture and we forget the smaller picture – that yes, this affects people on a daily basis. So while the lecture didn’t cover the Iraq war, because it’s the most prominent current war in most Australians’ minds, I thought it would be interesting to examine the statistics and look at this aspect of war:

U.S. SPENDING IN IRAQ

• Amount of money spent and approved for war in the US - About $800 billion of US taxpayers' funds spent or approved for spending through mid-2009. In April 2009, President Obama announced that he will seek an additional $76 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• U.S. monthly spending in Iraq - $12 billion in 2008

• U.S. spending per second - $5,000 in 2008

TROOPS IN IRAQ

• Troops in Iraq - Total 140,000, including 135,000 from the US, 4,000 from the UK, and 1,000 from all other nations

• Troop casualties - 4, 594

• US troops with serious mental health problems - 30% of US troops develop serious mental health problems within three to four months of returning home

IRAQI TROOPS, CIVILIANS & OTHERS IN IRAQ

• Journalists killed - 138, 92 by murder, 46 by acts of war (as a journalism student I thought this was interesting)

• Estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed - A UN issued report dated Sept 20, 2006 stating that Iraqi civilian casualties have been significantly under-reported. Casualties are reported at 50,000 to over 100,000, but may be much higher. Some informed estimates place Iraqi civilian casualities at over 600,000.

QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS

I created the image below to help me visualise the following statistics in relation to each other, as opposed to just being numbers on a page.



• Iraqi unemployment rate – 27% to 60%, where curfew not in effect

• Percent of professionals who have left Iraq since 2003 - 40%

• Average daily hours Iraqi homes have electricity - 1 to 2 hours

• Iraqis without access to adequate water supplies - 70%

http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm