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 €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.