More than 1,500 GI’s have died in Iraq by now. Additionally some 200 contractors and some 100 soldiers from several other countries died.

The accounts vary:
U.S. Department of Defense has some numbers. Global Security has other numbers, as do ICasualties.org and the Associated Press. All the above are usually based on reports from the U.S. military and I have my doubts that these numbers are correct.

Iraq Body Count only counts confirmed civilian dead, some 18,000 by now, directly attributed to the war and not including possible insurgents. They say their numbers are certainly an underestimation.

The scientifically correct Lancet study (free sub.) four month ago did give, as the most probable number of war related Iraqi casualties, 100,000. This was not the maximum number as some reports said, but the most probable.  Today that number is likely higher.

Uncounted are still the future victims of this war. Especially those from radioactive dust distributed through the use of depleted uranium ammunition and other long term illnesses.

Higher today are also oil prices $54.60/bl and going for $80.00/bl, if not higher. This does not only mean recession, but it will also kill people, because the price for wheat, corn, rice and soybeans will rise with the oil price and the poor on this planet will not be able to afford food.

The fruitless actions of the military and the mercenaries will continue, as will the prices for commodities, until the U.S. public wakes up and kicks ass. In Vietnam it took more than 50,000 killed GI’s to bring the war to an end. What will it take in Iraq?

Völkischer Beobachter as People’s Choice

and Greenspan at the Bat

Two weeks ago, Paul Krugman advised for Wag-the-Dog Protection

The campaign against Social Security is going so badly that longtime critics of President Bush, accustomed to seeing their efforts to point out flaws in administration initiatives brushed aside, are pinching themselves. But they shouldn’t relax: if the past is any guide, the Bush administration will soon change the subject back to national security.

Cont. reading: To Cynically Manipulate

To change oh so slightly the topic from the doom and gloom of previous posts, here’s a bit of good news, unless you are DeAnander:

The Flying Taxi:

Cont. reading: Lighter Than Air

Both are white: Pots and Kettles

On cotton: George W. Minderbinder

Well, after my previous post about China’s laudable attempts to develop renewable energy (see below), here’s a darker picture, still taken from the subscription part of the Financial Times: Shifting sands threaten China’s economic march

China as a whole appears to be fighting a losing battle against the shifting desert sands. According to official estimates, China’s deserts are growing by 3,500 sq km a year and now cover 18 per cent of the country. The sand threatens a further one-third of the mainland and 400m people, says Wang Xinjiang, an official from the anti-desertification office of the state forestry administration. The Asian Development Bank says accelerating desertification in China “increasingly threatens the economic welfare of the nation”. It has resulted in the loss of vast swathes of arable land, sinking ground water levels and heavily silted rivers. Mr Wang says China’s expanding deserts have direct economic costs of Rmb54bn (€4.9bn) a year. The problem is largely man-made, with logging and over-exploitation of land aggravating a natural lack of water and rainfall, leading to rapid soil erosion.

Cont. reading: China – Desert Threatens 400 Million People & Other Scary News

War Rooms

Strauss Waltz

Order of the Court

Correction: – Sorry I got the original story wrong. –

I accused the U.S. State Department Human Rights report of lying, when it said about a man tortured in Syria that he had "returned home to Syria to visit his family".

I assumed the man mentioned was Maher Arar, who had been abducted by U.S. officials and was send to Syria to be tortured. With this assumption in mind, it looked like a lie.

But the State Departments report may refer to Abdullah Almalki who is a Canadian-Syrian and who did return to Syria to visit relatives. Both men, Maher Arar and Abdullah Almalki, are reported to have been severly tortured in Syrian prisions. There are some 47,700 Google links related to "Maher Arar" and some 1,220 related to "Abdullah Almalki". I did assume the wider reported story was the base of the report.

So the State Department may not have lied as I alleged. But the State Department has the hypocrisy and chutzpah to include the case of a Abdullah Almalki in their human rights report on Syria, while ommitting the very well documented case of Maher Arar.

In the omitted case the US administration is directly responsible for Human Rights violations. It was obviously convinient, to not include it.

This in mind, you still may want to read my original uncorrected post below the fold.

Cont. reading: State Department Lies in Human Rights Report

Speak up!

China Daily
Non-fossil energy sources, including wind, solar power and thermal power, will make up a bigger share of China’s energy resources under a new bill passed yesterday encouraging use of renewable energy.

Yep, while Europe is quietly turning into a wind superpower (small pdf), and while the US says that the American Way of Life is "non-negotiable", dithers about supporting renewable energy (see below) and dreams about the Alaskan (smallish) hydrocarbon reserves, China is facing its very real energy problems in a more sensible way.

Would you have believed it, 5 years ago, that China could have more sensible policies than the US on such important matters?

Cont. reading: China Getting Serious About Renewable Energy. Meanwhile, the US Dither…

About these "Special Press Relations".

New home sales tumble

New home sales tumbled 9.2 percent in January, the government reported Monday, coming in below Wall Street forecasts and raising worries about rising interest rates and the nation’s housing market.

Next pop – the bond market.

One hundred dead in Hilla and counting …

Juan Cole says:

The Syrians found Saddam Hussein’s half-brother in Beirut and handed him over to the US. (If there is an Arab city where US intelligence ought to have been able to find a high Iraqi official by itself without help from Syria, it should have been Beirut).

but he does not provide a link and I fail to find a source in the international press for this. Can anyone find a detailed report on this?

Cont. reading: Iraq, Syria

A Bridge Too Far for Bush’s Social Security elimination plans

and

More junkmail coming from USAnext because Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

I think FEMA on its web site includes duct tape and plastic sheets. … It is very appropriately listed in the list of supplies for an emergency supply kit.
Press Briefing by Secretary Ridge – February 14, 2003

A spokesman for the company that makes America’s best-selling duct tape announced today that it will sponsor all future news conferences by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.
Duct Tape Maker Sponsors Tom Ridge News Conferences (Satire) – February 14, 2003

Assistant manager Joe Keenan reports his Denver-area Home Depot has "sold more in the last couple of days than we have in the last few months."
Say it with duct tape – February 14, 2003

"Tom Ridge served his country with great distinction, and we are honored to have him join our board, where we expect that his unique global experience and perspective will make a profound contribution to our company and our shareholders," said Bob Nardelli, chairman, president & CEO.
The Home Depot Names Secretary Tom Ridge to Board of Directors – February 24, 2005

UPDATE  Billmon cites some folks who are: Seeing the Light on the Right  /UPDATE

… One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you …

In the Open (Mind) Thread someone (me!) said:

Oh, Condi into High Heals and leather. Now I understand why her hus…., ahh the President likes her.

Billmon now summarizes the press reaction to my post (really?): These Boots are Made for Walking.

… One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you …

Meanwhile, there is still an interesting discussion in the R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson thread …

Michael Dobbs, a national reporter for the Washington Post, was swimming off Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. After personally witnessing the disaster, he did set up a private relief effort.

His report explains what is wrong with such efforts.

Cont. reading: How To Help (Not)

In October 2003, Goldman Sachs published a research paper, ‘Dreaming with BRICs: The Path to 2050 which predicted that by 2050, the hierarchy of the largest economies would be significantly changed, with China the largest, followed by the USA, India, Japan, Brazil and Russia. All the European members of the G-7 would be significantly outpaced.

This was updated in October 2004, in a second report, called "The BRICs and Global Markets: Crude, Cars and Capital" (sorry, could not find a link – but it is summarized below), whose title is quite explicit, and which basically confirms the 4 countries’ emergence as major economic powers and the corresponding growing irrelevance of Europe, with the US more or less holding their own.

How realistic is that, seriously?

Cont. reading: BRIC Ascendant – Wall St Hype vs Reallity

The UN has just released its latest World Population Prospects report on population estimates, which is essentially a detailed interactive data base, country by country, until 2050, with a number of very detailed sub-categories under various scenarios which I entourage you to play with.

The 2 biggest headlines are the following:

• Population to increase by 40% (see this BBC summary)
• India to overtake China as the largest country (see the Financial Times, which put the article on its front page this morning).

Cont. reading: How Many People is Too Many People?