Iraq death toll ‘soared post-war’, BBC News (UK edition)...

Poor planning, air strikes by coalition forces and a “climate of violence” have led to more than 100,000 extra deaths in Iraq, scientists say. (...) [The Lancet] found the relative risk, the risk of deaths from any cause, was two-and-a-half times higher for Iraqi civilians after the 2003 invasion than in the preceding 15 months. That figure drops to one-and-a-half times higher if data from Falluja – the scene of repeated heavy fighting – is excluded.

Jeremy Laurance, Iraq faces soaring toll of deadly disease, The Independent (13 Oct. 2004, UK newspaper), writes:

Soaring rates of disease and a crippled health system are posing a new crisis for the people of Iraq, threatening to kill more than have died in the aftermath of the war. Deadly infections including typhoid and tuberculosis are rampaging through the country, according to the first official report into the state of health in the country.

Siriel-Media :

The ‘Media-silenced’ Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq has gotten worse
and too many people are dying in silence.
La crise humanitaire en Irak, qui se trouve «sous silence-média», s’est aggravée
et trop de gens meurent en silence.

There was already a humanitarian crisis before the invasion, under the comprehensive trade sanctions, and it was quite predictable that it would get worse with a new war and the ensuing chaos. All in all, the true problem in our view, is that North American media are blind or silent about the thousands of innocent people who die from easily curable diseases and severe hardships caused by chaos and war. Indeed, more people die from the indirect effects of war (including the effects of the war against the occupation), than from bullets and bombs.

Without enough media attention, there are not enough donors and governments can more easily turn a blind eye.

Il y avait déjà une crise humanitaire en Irak avant l’invasion, sous les sanctions économiques globales (lire: qui englobaient tout le pays), et il était plutôt prévisible qu’elle allait s’empirer avec la guerre et le chaos qui en résulte. En dernière analyse, selon nous, le véritable problème est que les médias nord-américains sont aveugles ou silencieux au sujet des milliers de personnes innocentes qui meurent de maladies pouvant facilement être soignées et des privations sévères causées par le chaos et la guerre. En effet, plus de gens meurent des effets indirects de la guerre (incluant les effets de la guerre contre l’occupation), que de balles et de bombes.

Sans assez d’attention médiatique, il n’y a pas assez de donateurs et les gouvernements peuvent aisément fermer l’oeil.