Saturday, October 30, 2004
The Iraq death toll
Until now, the only source of information on the death toll from the Iraq conflict was IraqBodyCount. According to them, between 14,000 and 16,000 civilians have been killed so far. However, now comes news that the count may be far, far higher. According to a study conducted by the public health school at Johns Hopkins (and published in Lancet), an estimated 100,000 civilians have died as a direct or indirect consequence of the U.S. invasion. If you'd rather read the complete Lancet paper than the NYT story I have linked to, you can find it here.
100,000 civilians dead in barely justifiable war. A war, the justifications for which seem to change from month to month. And a very large number of those casualties occurred well after the fall of Baghdad, meaning that terrible post-war planning is primarily to blame. I hope someone has to answer for these deaths someday. If nothing else, I hope history will hold them accountable. That's cold comfort to the families of these 100,000 civilians though.
100,000 civilians dead in barely justifiable war. A war, the justifications for which seem to change from month to month. And a very large number of those casualties occurred well after the fall of Baghdad, meaning that terrible post-war planning is primarily to blame. I hope someone has to answer for these deaths someday. If nothing else, I hope history will hold them accountable. That's cold comfort to the families of these 100,000 civilians though.
