More Iraqi Body Counts
Today the Iraqi Minister of Health stated that an estimated 150,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the war. Among the primary culprits he does not mention coalition forces. Now let us compare his estimate to the Lancet study (too lazy to scroll down click here) that estimated 650,000 Iraqis had been killed, 34% of which coalition forces were responsible for the deaths of.
To start with, there doesn't seem to be any study attached to this statement, but rather just a rough estimate based on the number of bodies brought to morgues across Iraq. When people did the math it came out to actually be around 130,000. To which he replied: "It's an estimate."
Alright, so...let's see. In the article, it acknowledges that:
...those deaths did not include victims of violence whose bodies were taken to the city's many hospital morgues or those who were removed from attack scenes by relatives and quickly buried according to Muslim custom.
Ok, so how many is that? Shouldn't all devout Muslims bury their dead without bringing them to the morgue? Aren't there a lot of devout Muslims in Iraq? Why doesn't anyone ask these questions?
As for his statement that Sunni insurgents and gangs were responsible for the deaths, there are a couple major red flags there. First off, aren't the Sunnis fighting the Shiites? Are we to believe that only Sunnis kill people? Could it be that a majority Shiite government doesn't want Shiites to be blamed for killing civilians? What about Americans? Could it be that the minister is hesitant to blame the forces that are the only thing standing between his government and the military (which has been accused of planning a coup against the government)? Once again, why doesn't anyone ask these questions?
Yea, I know. A lot of rhetorical questions.
To start with, there doesn't seem to be any study attached to this statement, but rather just a rough estimate based on the number of bodies brought to morgues across Iraq. When people did the math it came out to actually be around 130,000. To which he replied: "It's an estimate."
Alright, so...let's see. In the article, it acknowledges that:
...those deaths did not include victims of violence whose bodies were taken to the city's many hospital morgues or those who were removed from attack scenes by relatives and quickly buried according to Muslim custom.
Ok, so how many is that? Shouldn't all devout Muslims bury their dead without bringing them to the morgue? Aren't there a lot of devout Muslims in Iraq? Why doesn't anyone ask these questions?
As for his statement that Sunni insurgents and gangs were responsible for the deaths, there are a couple major red flags there. First off, aren't the Sunnis fighting the Shiites? Are we to believe that only Sunnis kill people? Could it be that a majority Shiite government doesn't want Shiites to be blamed for killing civilians? What about Americans? Could it be that the minister is hesitant to blame the forces that are the only thing standing between his government and the military (which has been accused of planning a coup against the government)? Once again, why doesn't anyone ask these questions?
Yea, I know. A lot of rhetorical questions.
posted by Jimmy at 9:32 PM
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