When Australia joined the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, HoWARd said he was very conscious of the dangers for the civilian population. Almost two years later, a parliamentary committee has exposed that no one in the Australian Government knows how many Iraqis have died.

The Office of National Assessments’ (ONA) Director-General Peter Varghese has told Senator Faulkner he too doesn’t have any reliable (or unreliable) figures on civilian deaths in Iraq.

Questioning Robert Hill the Minister of Defence, John Faulkner asks: "What attempts has the Australian Government made to try and ascertain what these figures might be?"

Robert Hill answers: "Well, we’ve accepted that it’s not possible at this time to produce an accurate figure on civilian casualties."

JF: "So, the committee is to take that as no attempts have been made, none whatsoever – zero, blotto, nothing."

RH: "Well I don’t think there is reporting mechanism."

JF: "Obviously not."

RH: "That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you, because I don’t believe the Americans know and the implication of the briefing I received was to that effect."

If we suspend disbelief and accept that the invasion of Iraq is actually Operation Iraqi Freedom then the rhetoric of March 2003 still holds. Read a few more News Transcripts from our allies Minister.

Iraqis are human and value life. They mourn when life ends. Children die and families and communities are left shattered.

Count them Minister.
They matter.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at 6:56 am and is filed under Anti-war, Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Click to leave a comment.