How Many Iraqis Have Died? 30,000? No. 100,000? No.

[Clara T]

How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?

30,000? No. 100,000? No.

By ANDREW COCKBURN

01/09/06 "Counterpunch" -- -- President Bush's off-hand summation last month of the number of Iraqis who have so far died as a result of our invasion and occupation as "30,000, more or less" was quite certainly an under-estimate. The true number is probably hitting around 180,000 by now, with a possibility, as we shall see, that it has reached as high as half a million.

But even Bush's number was too much for his handlers to allow. Almost as soon as he finished speaking, they hastened to downplay the presidential figure as "unofficial", plucked by the commander in chief from "public estimates". Such calculations have been discouraged ever since the oafish General Tommy Franks infamously announced at the time of the invasion: "We don't do body counts". In December 2004, an effort by the Iraqi Ministry of Health to quantify ongoing mortality on the basis of emergency room admissions was halted by direct order of the occupying power.

In fact, the President may have been subconsciously quoting figures published by iraqbodycount.org, a British group that diligently tabulates published press reports of combat-related killings in Iraq. Due to IBC's policy of posting minimum and maximum figures, currently standing at 27787 and 31317, their numbers carry a misleading air of scientific precision. As the group itself readily concedes, the estimate must be incomplete, since it omits unreported deaths.

There is however another and more reliable method for estimating figures such as these: nationwide random sampling. No one doubts that, if the sample is truly random, and the consequent data correctly calculated, the sampled results reflect the national figures within the states accuracy. That, after all, is how market researchers assess public opinion on everything from politicians to breakfast cereals. Epidemiologists use it to chart the impact of epidemics. In 2000 an epidemiological team led by Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health used random sampling to calculate the death toll from combat and consequent disease and starvation in the ongoing Congolese civil war at 1.7 million. This figure prompted shocked headlines and immediate action by the UN Security Council. No one questioned the methodology.

In September 2004, Roberts led a similar team that researched death rates, using the same techniques, in Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion. Making "conservative assumptions" they concluded that "about 100,000 excess deaths" (in fact 98,000) among men, women, and children had occurred in just under eighteen months. Violent deaths alone had soared twentyfold. But, as in most wars, the bulk of the carnage was due to the indirect effects of the invasion, notably the breakdown of the Iraqi health system. Thus, though many commentators contrasted the iarqbodycount and Johns Hopkins figures, they are not comparable. The bodycounters were simply recording, or at least attempting to record, deaths from combat violence, while the medical specialists were attempting something far more complete, an accounting of the full death toll wrought by the devastation of the US invasion and occupation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11508.htm

[JuniperLea]

1. How many did Saddam kill?

And how many has George killed? Tell me again, who is the very bad man?

[Rex]

2. We killed at least 2 million North Vietnamese

during the Vietnam War. How many will it be this time?

[Double T]

3. We will never know the truth, but I believe the numbers killed........

;many of them innocent; are unnecessary and staggering.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

4. "Hey Georgie, you're the new Pol Pot!"

"Whaddaya mean? I thought that was Chinese carryout."

[G_j]

5. & new bombing raids daily

Edited on Sat Jan-07-06 11:23 AM by G_j

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6489

CITIZENS' TRIBUNAL TO INDICT PRESIDENT ON ALLEGED WAR CRIMES AND OTHER VIOLATIONS
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2006-01-06 22:00. Activism | Criminal Prosecution

When: 1:30 pm, January 10, 2006
Where: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC
Website: www.bushcommission.org

Contact: Larry Everest or Janet Yip: 212-941-8086 or email: [e-mail]

A bill of indictment will be delivered to the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 at 1:30PM charging the President of the United States and other named individuals in his administration with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A press conference will take place in Lafayette Park following delivery of the indictments to the White House. Present to answer questions will be Retired CIA Analyst Ray McGovern and others Commission participants. The indictments will also be delivered to the Department of Justice.

Named in the indictment are;
President of the United States George W. Bush,
Vice President Richard Cheney,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
US Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez,
US Army Major General Geoffrey Miller,
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and others

These indictments result from preparatory work and testimony presented at in New York City on October 21 and 22, 2005 at the opening session of The International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration, alleging illegal acts carried out or approved by the above named individuals in relation to, or in the conduct of, the following;

1) Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan; 2) Torture and Indefinite Detention; 3) Destruction of the Global Environment, particular reference to systematic policies; contributing to the effects of global warming; 4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote "abstinence only" in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic; and 5) Bush Administration's lethal response to Hurricane Katrina

The concluding sessions of the International Commission of Inquiry will be at the Riverside Church and the Columbia University Law School in New York on January 20-22. The Commission was organized by the Not In Our Name Statement of Conscience and is endorsed by: Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, After Downing Street.Org and many other prominent individuals and organizations, including Former Sen. James Abourezk, former British MP Tony Benn, authors Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and actor Edward Asner.

The above-named defendants are invited to appear or to send representatives to speak in their defense before a panel of distinguished jurors. This is the first opportunity in the USA for a complete public hearing of the charges and the evidence and testimony supporting them.

Charter, full indictments, standards for judgment, and audio and video coverage of the first session: http://www.bushcommission.org

[Clara T]

6. Just a sample of todays carnage

Suicide bombers kill 28 at Iraqi ministry: Two suicide bombers dressed as senior police officers blew themselves up inside the Iraqi Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad on Monday, killing 28 people and wounding 25 as officials marked National Police Day.

Five Bodies Found In Baghdad: Gunmen also killed an Iraqi intelligence officer in western Baghdad

Three Marines Killed In Fallujah: Three Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed by small-arms fire in separate attacks while conducting combat operations against the enemy in Fallujah Jan 8.

Iraqi Judge Killed In Kirkuk: An Iraqi judge responsible for investigating terrorist-related crimes was killed as he left for work in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Sometimes I get confused by the "last throes" and the "marching freedom". Is this what it looks like?

[G_j]

8. just a "spike"

in the violence that never ends.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to live in that kind of hell.

[SPKrazy]

7. When you take the Lancet report (100K) plus the estimates of

monthly Iraqis killed, plus Fallujah, etc.

It could easily be 500K. Easily.

[G_j]

9. ~~

[Clara T]

10. kick for info

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. Well over a year ago, the Guardian had the Iraqi death count at over

100,000.

[Marleyb]

12. The suffering the world has had to endure for their greed is unbearable

We have to stop them NOW! This is sick! They have lied to everyone so obviously! Their greed is right in our faces. These bastards are pure evil and they are laughing at US for not doing anything to stop them.

"I think we need to be honest about what's taking place in America, after all we're a country of the rule of law- and we got people breakin law. And the question is how best to bring what's happening to light in an honest an legal way."
- George W. Bush


check out this slide show of lies and the suffering they have caused...
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/legacy.wmv

"I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons."
- Donald Rumsfeld

"The evidence indicates that Iraq has reconstituted it's nukular weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nukular scientists, a group he calls his Nukular Mujaheddin, his Nukular Holy Warriors."
- George W. Bush
"Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
- George W. Bush

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use them against our friends, against our allies and against us."
- Dick Cheney

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraqi regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
- George W. Bush

"Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources, these are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more- many more- and he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. Most of the launcher and warheads have been hidden in large groves of palm trees.... This is evidence, not conjecture. This is true- this is all well documented."
-Colin Powell

"We won't be proven wrong."
- George W. Bush

Re: the uranium reference in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address

Tim Russert: "How'd it get back in?"

Condi Rice: "It's not a matter of getting back in, it's a matter Tim, that three plus months later people didn't remember that George Tenet had that it be taken out of the Cincinatti speech."


"There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, that's just a fact."
- Donald Rumsfeld

"People of the goodwill must also recognize that allowing a dangerous dictator to defy the world and build and arsenal for conquest and mass murder is not peace at all, it is pretense."
- George W. Bush

"If you harbor a terrorist, if you support a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists."
- George W. Bush

[Clara T]

13. If you have any more of those choice quotes

specifically related to the Iraq War, the lead up and the lies as it has been going along etc... I would appreciate them as I'm putting together a leaflet.