Originally published in The Irish Times, January 4, 2005
Copyright 2005 The Irish Times
Madam,
- In commercial, criminal and civil law, liability for damage done
unlawfully, or accidentally, or recklessly, falls on the doer. The Iraq
war was not accidental, but was both unlawful and reckless.
So
far the international media have attempted to estimate the costs of the
war as it impinged on the economies of the perpetrator countries,
mainly, the US, UK, Australia, Spain, Italy and those others listed as
the "collation of the willing". Some of these coalition members,
notably Ireland, may even have managed, so far, to make a small profit
out of this war. Others such as Spain and Australia, had hoped to cash
in on their complicity also, but suffered serious losses from the
bombings in Madrid and Bali.
The day of
reckoning for the Iraq war of 2003 may be many years, even decades from
now. Ireland supplied beef to feed the Iraqi army during the Iran-Iraq
war in the 1980s. It was never paid for this beef and the Irish
Government, on behalf of the "taxpayer", decided to write off well over
EUR 100 million of this bill in 2003. Libyan involvement in the bombing
of Pan Am flight 106 in 1988 over Lockerbie led to an agreement on
compensation in 2003 of about $10 million for each of the 270 victims.
The
cost of the compensation package for the Iraq war will be many times
the Libyan figure. The number of fatal victims has already exceeded
100,000, and the number of injured may be as high as 1,000,000 Iraqis.
This is close to the level of casualties caused by the tsunami tidal
wave in Asia. If calculated at $10 million per victim, then the
compensation or reparations due to the victims in Iraq would
amount to 10 million million dollars. This does not include structural
damage or damage to infrastructure and to the Iraqi economy, which is
likely to exceed the financial cost of the human losses and does not
include deaths and illnesses due indirectly to the war.
About
40 countries were involved in the "coalition of the willing". The
question of proportionality will arise. Apportioning blame on a
percentage basis would give approximate calculations of responsibility
and liability as follows. The US: 70 per cent, based on leadership,
troop deployment and military hardware. The UK: 10 per cent, based on
its direct military involvement. The group of other troop-contributing
countries: 12 per cent per cent, to be divided proportionally between
them, on the basis of their level of military involvement. The group of
countries that provided logistic support including landing and
over-flight facilities: 8 per cent.
Within
this last group Ireland has been one of the most complicit due to the
fact that approximately 70 per cent of all US troops engaged in the war
passed through Shannon airport. If Ireland's share of financial
responsibility for reparations to Iraq were to be calculated at a modest 0.5 per cent, this could amount to about $100 billion.
Killing
people unlawfully and destroying their towns is an expensive business,
and a bad business. While no money can compensate for the loss of human
life, all countries involved in this unlawful war should be forced to
pay reparations. Happy New Year? Not in Iraq for many years to come. - Yours, etc.,
EDWARD HORGAN,
International Secretary,
Peace and Neutrality Alliance,
Newtown,
Castletroy,
Limerick.