Why they hate us (II): How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years? - Stephen M. Walt.
The real ratio is probably much higher, and a reasonable upper bound for Muslim fatalities (based mostly on higher estimates of “excess deaths” in Iraq due to the sanctions regime and the post-2003 occupation) is well over one million, equivalent to over 100 Muslim fatalities for every American lost.
I don’t necessarily agree with Walt’s take on still supporting interventions but he’s honest enough to state it how it is: “Virtually all of the Muslim deaths were the direct or indirect consequence of official U.S. government policy. By contrast, most of the Americans killed by Muslims were the victims of non-state terrorist groups such as al Qaeda or the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. […] Our real problem isn’t a fictitious Muslim “narrative” about America’s role in the region; it is mostly the actual things we have been doing in recent years.”
Pleasant surprise that it’s in Foreign Policy’s magazine. A rare occurrence.
(via mehreenkasana)
ashton. 19.