How Many Have Died?

How Many Have Died? November 9. 2004

As the US has started a huge campaign in the city of Fallujah, I come to wonder how many civilians have died in the Iraq war thus far. One would think this would be a well published number seeing as the US is suppose to be a humanitarian country following all the "rules of war" et cetera but that is far from the case. The US government will not put out any numbers as to the number of Iraqi casualties. The government has stated that "[they] don't do body counts." Certainly they could make a conservative estimate. I suppose they figure that type of information is a downer for the American people so the government hides it to keep the people in the dark happy.

So, I took it upon myself to do some research and I found a few independent sources that do give numbers. The one that I find really non-political and gives a range of numbers based on good estimations for each altercation is http://iraqbodycount.net/

Currently they have a range of 14284-16419 civilians killed as of today. These are not insurgents or even Iraqi nationals fighting against the occupying force in their homeland. These are innocent people!

Think about how sad it was for the US to lose a mere 3000 civilians in the world trade center attacks. Think about how sad it would have been to have that happen in 5 different locations across the US. The depth of sadness we would have felt!!!!! That is what is happening to the Iraqi populous.

Even Augustine de Hippo in all of his double predestination splendor couldn't justify this war. (Augustine originated the doctrine of "predestination" and "just war" )

Why doesn't the US news and the US government give us this information?!

David Tuesday, November 9. 2004 @ 14:25
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I read somewhere about the Iraqis being affected by the uranium (or whatever) that is in the different missiles and smart bombs. Apperently people are getting cancer from what's left of the missiles.
Sorry, but I just don't remember where I read this.

#1 Sean on 2004-11-10 18:51 (Reply)

I'm sure the http://iraqbodycount.net/ are not counting those deaths. There are many evils of war and of modernization. If only we could find a balance in love.

#1.1 David (Homepage) on 2004-11-11 09:27 (Reply)

From the NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08hospital.html

"American officials also say the hospital has been a haven for insurgents in what has been a "no-go" zone for American forces for months. And they have made little secret of their irritation with what they contend are inflated civilian casualty figures that regularly flow from the hospital - propaganda, they believe, for the Falluja insurgents, whom they blame for much of the car bombings, beheadings and other acts of terror in Iraq."

The problem I see here is that the US has taken a stand that they are not doing body counts on the number of civilians murdered by US forces. How would they know the hospital was sending out "inflated civilian casualty figures" if they themselves are not keeping count? What evidence do they have to prove or disprove the statements made by the hospital? This is the place where there are people who are actually helping the civilians get better after being shot at by the US.

I wonder if the US government is spewing forth some of ifs own propoganda by omission?

#2 David (Homepage) on 2004-11-11 09:37 (Reply)

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