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Working for a nuclear-free future since 1979

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Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars

Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones

Afghanistan and Pakistan (October 2001 – October 2019).

Iraq (March 2003 – October 2019).

Syria (September 2014 – October 2019).

Yemen (October 2002-October 2019) and Other1

Neta C. Crawford and Catherine Lutz2

November 13, 2019*

Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020
  Afghanistan Pakistan Iraq     Syria/ISIS3 Yemen4 Other5 Total
US Military6 2,2987 ____8 4,5729 710 111 136 7,014
US DOD Civilian12 6   15 1 ____ ____ 22
US Contractors13 3,814 90 3,588 1714 2 43915   7,950
National Military and

Police16

 64,12417 9,12918 48,337-52,33719 51,48320 ____ 21

(see- Opposition Fighters below)

   173,073-177,073
Other Allied Troops22 1.145 ____ 323 11,00023 ____   12,468
Civilians 43,07424 23,92425 184,382-

207,15626

 49,59127 12,00028   312,971-335,745
  Afghanistan Pakistan Iraq     Syria/ISIS3 Yemen4 Other5 Total
Opposition

Fighters

 42,10029 32,73730 34,806-

39,88131

 67,06532 78,00033   254,708-259,783
Journalists and Media

Workers34

 67 86 277 75 31   536
Humanitarian/

NGO

Workers35

 424 97 63 185 38   807
TOTAL 157,052 66,064 276,363-

308,212

 179,424 90,072 575 769,549-801,398
TOTAL 157,052            66,000 276,000-

308,000

 179,000 90,000 600 770,000-801,000

20 Years of War / A Costs of War Research Series
Watson Institute, Brown University -&- Frederick Pardee Center, Boston University.

1 This chart tallies direct deaths caused by war violence. It does not include indirect deaths, namely those caused by loss of access to food, water, and/or infrastructure, war-related disease, etc. The numbers included here are approximations based on the reporting of several original data sources. Most though not all original data sources are updated through late-October 2019; dates are noted in the footnotes. Some original data sources are incomplete, inconsistent and/or data is inaccessible.

2 Neta C. Crawford is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Boston University and a Co-Director of Costs of War Project. Catherine Lutz is Professor of Anthropology and Co-Director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute.

3 US Air strikes in Syria began on September 23, 2014.

4 The US began drone strikes in Yemen in 2002 but the major fighting began when Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015.

5 Killed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Yemen from 7 October 2001-31 December 2014.

6 Department of Defense Casualty Report, https://dod.defense.gov/news/Casualty-Status/. Through November 4, 2019. [Read more…]

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Stop the New Nuclear Arms Race Conference

The Nuclear Resister, Nukewatch, and the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance invite you to an international conference May 22-25 in Maryville, Tennessee.
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Nuclear Resister
[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end]Nukewatch[/ezcol_1third_end]

SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons are still an existential threat; the Doomsday clock is set at 2 ½ minutes til midnight; nuclear weapons states are investing trillions of dollars to upgrade their weapons systems.

At the same time, peace movements around the world are gaining strength, bolstered by the compelling authority of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The problem of nuclear weapons will not be solved by non-nuclear nations alone—those of us living in nuclear weapons states and under the nuclear umbrella have a primary obligation not just to work for, but to achieve abolition.

STOP THE NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE will bring together activists from around the world to talk about how we can use the tools available to us—the Treaty, the work of Don’t Bank on the Bomb, the  merging voices of faith communities, resistance efforts at weapons sites, localized nuclear-free-cities efforts,  ICAN’s report on University ties to nuclear weapons production, Back from the Brink, direct actions at military bases, and more—in collaborations that are mutually supportive and effective.

SCHEDULE

The conference begins Friday evening with a chance to hear from participants about the work being done around the globe.

Saturday, we’ll have presentations followed by in-depth workshops focusing on many of the efforts happening in the US, Europe and elsewhere.

Sunday will include time to share ideas and develop collaborative strategies. As the Ban Treaty enters into force, it will provide additional leverage to reduce the reach of nuclear weapons states; as weapons are withdrawn from foreign soil, the pressure will mount on weapons states to fulfill the promise they made in the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Monday morning—a trip to the bomb plant! We’ll go to Oak Ridge for a nonviolent demonstration against the nuclear weapons work being done at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex.

[Read more…]

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11,000 Scientists Warn of Climate Emergency

Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning endorsed by 11,000 scientists from 153 nations. The alarm was published in the journal BioScience on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference, which was held in Geneva in 1979. The urgently needed changes include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction, and slashing meat eating. The authors set out a series of urgently needed actions:

• Use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use.

• Stabilize global population—currently growing by 200,000 people a day—using ethical approaches such as longer education for girls.

• End the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2.

• Eat mostly plants and less meat, and reduce food waste.

• Shift economic goals away from GDP growth. Responding to a separate assessment called the Emissions Gap Report, UN Secretary General António Guterres said, “There has never been a more important time to listen to the science. Failure to heed these warnings and take drastic action to reverse emissions means we will continue to witness deadly and catastrophic heat waves, storms and pollution.” —Somini Sengupta, New York Times, Nov. 26; and Damian Carrington, The Guardian, Nov. 5, 2019

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House Committee Okays Changes to High-Level Waste Dump Law

Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020

The US House Energy & Commerce Committee passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019—H.R. 2699—by a voice vote Nov. 20. This dangerously bad high-level radioactive waste bill is among the most controversial in Congress. H.R. 2699 would allow for the opening of one or more waste dumps in the US Southwest—so-called Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities (CISFs)—now targeted for New Mexico and Texas (by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance at New Mexico, and by Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists in Texas). The bill also reopens plans for permanent abandonment of the waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada—on Western Shoshone Indian land—a scientifically unsuitable site that was eliminated in 2010. If any of these dumps opens, large-scale shipments of high-risk irradiated waste reactor fuel would travel by road, rail, and/or waterway through most states, past millions of homes. The bill now moves closer to a House floor vote. What can you do? Please contact your US Rep’s via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose H.R. 2699, and to oppose funding for both the Yucca dump and any CISF. Urge them to instead support good bills like the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act (S. 649/H.R. 1544), and the STRANDED Act (S. 1985). —Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

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Emergency Chief: Keep Evacuation Zone

Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020

In Massachusetts, the chief of emergency management is objecting to a federal plan to allow owners of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to cut the current 10-mile radius emergency evacuation zone down to the site’s property line. Samantha Phillips, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, says the “all hazards plan” the state uses for other emergencies would not provide an adequate response for a radiation release. The reactor, near Plymoth on Cape Cod Bay, closed last May 31st. Phillips said the licenced emergency planning for the zone around the reactor should remain in place until all 3,000 waste uranium fuel rod assemblies—now being cooled in a deep pool on site—are transferred to heavy steel and cement dry casks. “The [State’s] overriding interest at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is to maintain public safety,” Phillips says in her letter to Scott Wall, manager of the Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, a branch of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “While the type and probability of public safety risks at a nuclear power station evolve and reflect whether a plant is active or inactive, a nuclear power station undergoing decommissioning and deconstruction nonetheless presents substantial and complex risks to public safety, especially when spent fuel remains in the spent fuel pool.” In the United States, 23 closed nuclear reactors are being decommissioned and thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste fuel remain on site in cooling pools or dry cask storage. —Excerpted from an article by Christine Legere, Cape Cod Times, Nov. 25, 2019

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