- Put form, shape and color to words that are silenced during times of war
- Reflect patriotism and protest
- Express hope for the end of war and the rebuilding of lives and landscapes."
If you decide to go to war, you are responsible for collateral damage - or - if you break it - you fix it or replace it. Not that Saddam's government didn't deserve to be punished, but how and to what extent is not only a military decision but a moral decision. Putting aside the leadership issue and knowing that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator [once he was "our" dictator because his enemy was our enemy], Iraq was first dropped and broken on the grand scale following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1991. The collateral damage to Iraq in 1991 and until 2003 was the tip of the iceberg. The ghosts of old wars linger on the desert battlefields, poisoning the Iraqi's, the soldiers of Operation Desert Storm, and even today. The remnants of the first Gulf War included ordinances made from depleted uranium. It has been [inconclusively] blamed for the "Gulf War Syndrome." [Or perhaps the vaccines against anthrax and other "nasties" conspired against the soldiers....] Coincidentally, since 1991, there has been a seven-fold increase in child birth defects in southern Iraq. Also, the U.N. sanctions made it difficult for water treatment facilities, power stations, and hospitals to be rebuilt, repaired, and/or supplied [weapons of mass destruction fears]. The sobering data from a UN Security Council 1999 assessment of the humanitarian condition in Iraq emphasized that "before 1991. . .90% of the population had access to an abundant quantity of safe drinking water." They also consumed 3,100 kilocalories per day with the highest rate of food availability per capita in the region. Child mortality (<5) was 56 per 1,000 births [1984-1989]. The sanctions, infrastructure and environmental damage Iraq suffered in the Þrst Gulf War and continued bombings to punish violations of no-ßy zones, etc. led to the death of a 300,000 to 500,000 children by 1996 [131 deaths per 1,000 between 1994-1999]. Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright if the price of killing more children than the number of Japanese who died in Hiroshima was worth it. Albright responded: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the priceÑwe think the price is worth it." She also stated two years later in a CNN Town Hall Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, that "I am willing to make a bet to anyone here that we care more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does." [We have a funny way of showing our care.] The Þrst Gulf war was responsible directly for the death of ~200,000 Iraqis with more than half dying from the health of effects of the war.
The collateral damage since 2003 includes continued limited access to clean water and sanitation. There is significant unemployment, leading to poverty and household food security. The environment has been degraded even further with increased land, sea, river and atmospheric pollution; it has also spread to neighboring countries. Fragile desert ecology has been destroyed. Social systems and public services, including health services have been compromised and disrupted. The health of the Iraqi people is worse now than before the war and there has been little talk about the long-term physical and mental health of the Iraqis post war.
How many Iraqi's have died in the current Gulf War? According to [now retired] General Tommy Franks, "We don't do body counts." [His comment was about Afghanistan but it also applies to Iraq.] It is estimated about 100 Iraqis are dying a day because of insurgent violence. There is no accurate count of how many have died since the war started in 2003. But hey, look on the bright side, there have been "only" 3,168 military deaths since March 2003. [March 4, 2007]
The selected pages and images were cropped and mounted onto Davey board. The overall dimensions of the piece are: 24-3/8" [h] x 16" [w] x 1.5" [d]. The Davey board shell is covered with distressed and dyed Japanese red Moriki. Brass-plated Chicago posts were attached to two of the panels so they could be slide left and right - revealing parts of the images behind them. At the bottom are five boxes with removable lids. Recycled Halloween skulls and bones as well as left-over images from the original book are housed in the boxes.
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