The Village of the Dead of 9-11-01 and the Next 15 Years
Since large numbers are hard to grasp, let's imagine a village of 2,000 people, populated by all the dead of 9-11-01 and the wars that that horrible day inspired.
Out of the 2,000 villagers, only 3 would have been killed on 9-11 itself.
2 villagers would represent American soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
American soldiers killed in Iraq would be represented by 4 villagers and 1 would represent the dead American contractors in Iraq.
The total American population of this village would be 10, a tiny minority of only 1%.
The largest bloc of villagers would be the 600 Iraqis, mostly civilians, many children, killed since the American invasion of their country in 2003.
The next biggest group would be the 366 Syrians, who would not be in the village of the dead were it not for the vicious civil war that kicked off in 2011 as a direct result of the regional destabilization and spread of violence from the American invasion, occupation, and the insurgency and civil war it inspired in neighboring Iraq.
Finally, you would have 24 Afghans, mostly civilians, killed by American and Taliban fighting in their country, mostly killed by American airstrikes, exposure, and disruption of medical infrastructure resulting from the American war against the Taliban, a war launched only because the Taliban gave sanctuary to al Qaeda before 9-11-01.
Usually, this Village of the Dead exercise is done with 100 villagers, but the population had to be expanded or else the dead of 9-11 would not have been represented by a single villager, and all of the American dead - on 9-11, in Afghanistan, then in Iraq - would be needed to be counted as a single person.
Were we to reduce the population of the village to 100 anyway, maintaining the same proportion, we would have 1 dead American representing all of the American dead from 9-11 itself through September 2016.
60 of the villagers would be dead Iraqis, mostly civilians.
60 of the villagers would be dead Iraqis, mostly civilians.
37 would be dead Syrians.
2 would be dead Afghans.
Another way of grasping these numbers is to ask how many people died in each country for each of the 2,624 Americans and 372 internationals who died on 9-11.
Almost 1 (0.92) American soldier or contractor died in Afghanistan for every American who died on 9-11. Put another way, roughly 10 Americans died in Afghanistan for every 11 Americans who died on 9-11.
Another 2 American soldiers or contractors died for every American killed on 9-11-01.
All told, about 3 American servicemen died for every American killed on 9-11.
But the non-American ratio was much higher.
9 Afghans died for every victim of the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks.
A staggering 219 Iraqis died for every victim of 9-11. 250 Iraqi lives were lost for every American victim of 9-11.
Roughly 134 Syrians died for every 9-11 victim, 152 for each American victim.
Add them all up and you get the following:
1 American 9-11 victim =
1 dead American in Afghanistan
2 dead Americans in Iraq
9 Afghans killed
250 Iraqis killed
152 Syrians killed
===
414 died for every American who died on 9-11-01.
One final way of looking at this: of the entire "Global War on Terrorism" campaigns including the initial attack, the deaths on the day that inspired 15 years of subsequent violence have shrunk to a rounding error in the total fatalities - about 0.2%.
True, 9-11 was not the only reason for some of these wars and it's possible that Syria would have spiralled into Civil War without our help. We just don't know. And although 9-11 was not a direct justification for the war against Saddam Hussein, it's hard to imagine the United States launching such a nakedly aggressive war in the teeth of fierce international protests had it not been for the rage and fear of the unrelated 9-11 attacks.
The Afghan and Iraqi casualties are conservative. The Syrian number is that agreed to by the Arab League and the UN (400,000), so the real ratio of Other Dead to American Dead is likely much higher, but there is no question that the number is very large and that if we used only the gruesome calculus of dead bodies, the wars launched 15 years to protect innocents from violent death were abysmal failures. A business that lost an additional $414 for every $1 of losses it was trying to prevent would not be solvent for long.
As we remember the dead of 9-11-01, let's not forget the 99.8% of the dead who followed in our misguided efforts to meet violence with violence.
As we remember the dead of 9-11-01, let's not forget the 99.8% of the dead who followed in our misguided efforts to meet violence with violence.
Appendix and Sources
Americans killed on 9-11 | ||
Total killed on 9-11 | 2996 | foreigners killed on 9-11 |
Americans killed in Afghanistan | per DOD | |
American contractors killed in Afghanistan | ||
Americans killed in Iraq | per DOD | |
American contractors killed in Iraq | ||
Iraqi deaths since 2003 | multiple sources; Lancet survey of 654,965 excess deaths through the end of June 2006 used here | |
Afghan deaths since 2001 | ||
Syrian deaths 2011 to 2016 | UN and Arab league estimate | |
Americans killed on 9-11 | 2,624 | 2,624 | Americans killed on 9-11 | ||
Total killed on 9-11 | 372 | 2,996 | Total killed on 9-11 | 2996 | foreigners killed on 9-11 |
Americans killed in Afghanistan | 2,345 | 5,341 | Americans killed in Afghanistan | per DOD | |
American contractors killed in Afghanistan | 75 | 5,416 | American contractors killed in Afghanistan | ||
Americans killed in Iraq | 4,486 | 9,902 | Americans killed in Iraq | per DOD | |
American contractors killed in Iraq | 769 | 10,671 | American contractors killed in Iraq | ||
Iraqi deaths since 2003 | 654,965 | 665,636 | Iraqi deaths since 2003 | multiple sources; Lancet survey of 654,965 excess deaths through the end of June 2006 used here | |
Afghan deaths since 2001 | 26,000 | 691,636 | Afghan deaths since 2001 | ||
Syrian deaths 2011 to 2016 | 400,000 | 1,091,636 | Syrian deaths 2011 to 2016 | UN and Arab league estimate | |
