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

[kpete]

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.

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

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. The International Committee of the Red Cross used to report

Iraqi civilian casualties at the beginning of the ground war. Then sometime around the end of March, 2003 they stopped. Apparently, the US did not want anyone keeping track.


Here are a few samples of the reports that the ICRC used to put out that I saved:


GENEVA -- The International Red Cross said Thursday that at least one person had died and 14 were wounded in the first day of war in Iraq.

The first independent, non-Iraqi source to confirm the numbers, the International Committee of the Red Cross said at a news conference that one of its doctors had reported back following visits to hospitals in Baghdad.

www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-war-iraq-casualties,0,4765092.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dworld%2Dheadlines



23 March 2003 - Iraq: Latest news from ICRC staff in the field


According to hospital sources, 32 newly injured patients and 1 dead person arrived in Yarmouk Hospital and two newly injured people were checked in to Ibn Al-Nafis Hospital. No new arrivals of injured patients were reported in Al-Kindi Hospital.

www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList4/1186B6BB149D698EC1256CF200540828



25 March 2003 - Field reports from Baghdad and Basra

Baghdad - The ICRC doctor has checked on the situation in several hospitals, which report 60 wounded, including seven seriously injured children, and eight deaths following last night's attacks.

Baghdad (From yesterday, 24 March) - The ICRC doctor visited Al-Yarmouk general teaching hospital and Al-Kindi general hospital. According to authorities at the former, 50 wounded people were admitted during the night from 23 to 24 March and in the morning of 24 March. They also speak of six persons having being killed.

www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5KYKVR?OpenDocument&style=custo_final



27 March 2003 - Iraq: Latest news from ICRC staff in the field,


The ICRC doctor and his assistant visited four hospitals treating war-wounded patients (Baghdad has 33 hospitals in total but the ICRC focuses primarily on facilities receiving war wounded patients). Three of these hospitals reported 60 wounded and 15 deaths following the bombardments of the night from 25 to 26 March and the morning of 26 March. These figures cannot be independently confirmed.

www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList534/552B14255CB304D1C1256CF6004C701D

[drduffy]

2. the Lancet report

put it at between 100 and 600 thousand

[applegrove]

3. Assassin's Gate goes into how in Baghdad about 20 - 35 people a night

were brought into the morgue after the invasion (or some such number). So 20 times 365 = 7300 a year. So 20,000 in Baghdad alone dying in three years. Means 30,000 number must be way off. Cause all cities would have seen the increase in murders. And indeed - many of the murders were of ex-baathists as well as street gangs. Don't know if the victims of suicide bombings made it into the morgue.
Pretty sad stuff.

Before Saddam was ousted - the morgues never saw the bodies - Saddam had the monopoly on murder. The sociopaths were likely all hired for the baath party. And the bodies put in mass graves.