It’s time for that ‘Come to Jesus’ talk, Mr. President

Joe Biden, President of the United States began his political career in 1973 as a US Senator and held that position until 2009. In 2009 he became Vice President of the United States under Barack Obama until 2017 and he was elected President in 2020. For 47 years, Biden has been influential in US foreign policy and has been a key player and witness to the horrible effects of the US War on Terror on civilian populations.

According to the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, as of September 2021, an estimated 432,093 civilians have died violent deaths as a result of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and Somalia. As of May 2023, an estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones. The total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.7 million men, women and children.

It should be clearly noted that this is as a result of the US War on Terror since 9/11. The statistics have nothing to do with any conflict between Israel and the Palestinians during this same time period.

People living in the war zones have been killed in their homes, in markets, and on roadways. They have been killed by bombs, bullets, fire, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and drones. Civilians die at checkpoints, as they are run off the road by military vehicles, when they step on mines or cluster bombs, as they collect wood or tend to their fields, and when they are kidnapped and executed for purposes of revenge or intimidation.

The Watson Institute makes the bold assertion that “They are killed by the United States, by its allies, and by insurgents and sectarians in the civil wars spawned by the invasions.”

War can also lead to death weeks or months after battles. Many times more people in the war zones have died as a result of battered infrastructure and poor health conditions arising from the wars than directly from its violence. For example, war refugees often lose access to a stable food supply or to their jobs, resulting in increased malnutrition and vulnerability to disease.

The Watson Institute’s report titled The Cost of War, lists the following key findings.

Key Findings

• 432,093 civilians have died violent deaths as a direct result of the US post-9/11 wars.
• An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.
• More than 7.6 million children under five in post-9/11 war zones are suffering from acute malnutrition.
• War deaths from malnutrition and a damaged health system and environment likely far outnumber deaths from combat.

The Watson Institute reports list the following recommendations.

Recommendations

• The US government should include civilian deaths and injuries in public reporting of war deaths, including a tally of children killed.
• The US government should do a more comprehensive and thorough job investigating allegations of civilian deaths that result from its drone strikes.

The Watson Institute is not an NGO, nor is it an arm of the UN or any other NGO with an agenda. It is an academic institute based at Brown University. It lists its objectives and goals on its website.

The Costs of War project conducts and publishes research to facilitate debate about the ongoing consequences of the United States post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere; the costs of the US global military footprint; and the domestic effects of US military spending.

Created in 2010 and housed at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, the Costs of War project builds on the work of over 60 scholars, experts, human rights advocates, and physicians from around the world. 

We aim to raise awareness and foster discussion by providing the fullest possible account of the human, economic, political, and environmental costs of US militarism, laying the foundation for better informed US foreign and domestic policies.

Research Goals:

• To account for the wars’ costs in human lives and the consequences for immediate and long-term public health and wellbeing, both in the US and in the war zones;
• To assess the wars’ budgetary costs, including the financial legacy, as well as the opportunity costs of the US military budget;
• To describe the scope of the US global military footprint and its political and social impact in the US and around the world.

President Joe Biden is a devout practicing Catholic. As an influential Senator, Vice President and President, he has been intimately involved in the US War on Terror and he must bear witness to the humanitarian catastrophe that this War on Terror, conducted by the US, has fallen on innocent lives of men, women and children.

He has blood on his hands.

As a practicing Catholic he must be well read in the Gospel of John, Verse 8 which reads, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”

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