SkipCaptcha, Automoderated users, edit
703
edits
Changes
Operation Iraqi Freedom (view source)
Revision as of 03:46, October 11, 2010
, 03:46, October 11, 2010→Civilian Casualties
===Civilian Casualties===
===Civilian Casualties===
The anti-war Iraq Body Count website has chronicled and tallied virtually all reported Iraqi civilian deaths from the war that have multiple sources in print, coming to a present total of 98-107,000 deaths.<ref>http://www.iraqbodycount.org/</ref> However, this sum certainly understates the case to a considerable extent, given that the total number of deaths could not all have been reported and tallied. It is safe to say that their tally reflects a ''majority'' of the deaths, thus an estimate higher than 200,000 dead would seem extremely unlikely. On November 11, 2006, Iraqi Health Minister Ali al-Shamari estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians had been killed during the war.<ref>[http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/11/11/2003335773 Iraq death toll may go as high as 150,000]</ref> A 2008 estimate by the [[World Health Organization]] placed the civilian death toll at 151,000.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080110/wl_nm/iraq_deaths_survey_dc 151,000 Iraqis killed since U.S.-led invasion: WHO]</ref>
The anti-war Iraq Body Count website has chronicled and tallied virtually all reported Iraqi civilian deaths from the war that have multiple sources in print, coming to a present total of 98-107,000 deaths.<ref>http://www.iraqbodycount.org/</ref> However, this sum certainly understates the case to a considerable extent, given that the total number of deaths could not all have been reported and tallied. On November 11, 2006, Iraqi Health Minister Ali al-Shamari estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians had been killed during the war.<ref>[http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2006/11/11/2003335773 Iraq death toll may go as high as 150,000]</ref> A 2008 estimate by the [[World Health Organization]] placed the civilian death toll at 151,000.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080110/wl_nm/iraq_deaths_survey_dc 151,000 Iraqis killed since U.S.-led invasion: WHO]</ref>
Based on a careful analysis of IBC's figures, only 1-2% of Iraqi civilian deaths during the occupation were caused by US troops, and the rest by the insurgency they were combating.<ref>http://www.aina.org/news/2007110894701.jsp</ref> The American army in Iraq has taken ''three times'' as many casualties as it has inflicted on Iraqi civilians in collateral damage, which must be a first in the history of military occupation.<ref>http://www.aina.org/news/2007110894701.jsp</ref> The US invasion killed an additional 3,000<ref> http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8.html</ref> to 7,000<ref> http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/year-four/</ref> Iraqi civilians, and at least 7,600–10,800 Iraqi combatants. <ref> http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8.html</ref>
Based on a careful analysis of IBC's figures, only 1-2% of Iraqi civilian deaths during the occupation were caused by US troops, and the rest by the insurgency they were combating.<ref>http://www.aina.org/news/2007110894701.jsp</ref> The American army in Iraq has taken ''three times'' as many casualties as it has inflicted on Iraqi civilians in collateral damage, which must be a first in the history of military occupation.<ref>http://www.aina.org/news/2007110894701.jsp</ref> The US invasion killed an additional 3,000<ref> http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8.html</ref> to 7,000<ref> http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/year-four/</ref> Iraqi civilians, and at least 7,600–10,800 Iraqi combatants. <ref> http://www.comw.org/pda/0310rm8.html</ref>
In 2006, the Lancet medical journal published an extremely high estimate of 655,000 civilian deaths caused by the war. These figures have been extensively discredited, with the following summary from the IBC being the most succicent explanation:
<blockquote>
The Iraqi mortality estimates published in the Lancet in October 2006 imply, among other things, that:
On average, a thousand Iraqis have been violently killed every single day in the first half of 2006, with less than a tenth of them being noticed by any public surveillance mechanisms; some 800,000 or more Iraqis suffered blast wounds and other serious conflict-related injuries in the past two years, but less than a tenth of them received any kind of hospital treatment; over 7% of the entire adult male population of Iraq has already been killed in violence, with no less than 10% in the worst affected areas covering most of central Iraq; half a million death certificates were received by families which were never officially recorded as having been issued; the Coalition has killed far more Iraqis in the last year than in earlier years containing the initial massive "Shock and Awe" invasion and the major assaults on Falluja. If these assertions are true, they further imply: Incompetence and/or fraud on a truly massive scale by Iraqi officials in hospitals and ministries, on a local, regional and national level, perfectly coordinated from the moment the occupation began; bizarre and self-destructive behaviour on the part of all but a small minority of 800,000 injured, mostly non-combatant, Iraqis; the utter failure of local or external agencies to notice and respond to a decimation of the adult male population in key urban areas; and an abject failure of the media, Iraqi as well as international, to observe that Coalition-caused events of the scale they reported during the three-week invasion in 2003 have been occurring every month for over a year. In the light of such extreme and improbable implications, a rational alternative conclusion to be considered is that the authors have drawn conclusions from unrepresentative data. In addition, totals of the magnitude generated by this study are unnecessary to brand the invasion and occupation of Iraq a human and strategic tragedy.<ref>http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/beyond/reality-checks/</ref>
</blockquote>
==Summary of Justifications for the Iraq War Taken From This Entry==
==Summary of Justifications for the Iraq War Taken From This Entry==