The Pentagon says it "doesn't do body counts." Here at Mike's Blog, we do body counts.
From an Iraqi humanitarian agency via UPI:
An Iraqi humanitarian organization is reporting that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003.
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that chairman of the 'Iraqiyun humanitarian organization in Baghdad, Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani, said that the toll includes everyone who has been killed since that time, adding that 55 percent of those killed have been women and children aged 12 and under.
'Iraqiyun obtained data from relatives and families of the deceased, as well as from Iraqi hospitals in all the country's provinces. The 128,000 figure only includes those whose relatives have been informed of their deaths and does not include those were abducted, assassinated or simply disappeared.
The number includes those who died during the U.S. assaults on al-Fallujah and al-Qa'im. 'Iraqiyun's figures conflict with the Iraqi Body Count public database compiled by Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies. According to the Graduate Institute of International Studies' database, 39,000 Iraqis have been killed as a direct result of combat or armed violence since March 2003. No official estimates of Iraqi casualties from the war have been issued by the Pentagon, which insists that it does not do "body counts." The Washington Post on July 12 reported that U.S. military deaths in Iraq now total 1,755
That doesn't include the 27 Iraqis killed today, half of them kids
If Max Power were still posting, he would come up with a reason why you shouldn't believe this number.
Posted by mike at July 13, 2005 06:15 PMugh... while we're on the topic of body counts, out of curiousity, how does the number of deaths during Hussein's regime compare per year on a prorated basis with the numbers you posted today?
Mike- yeah, it's been a while since I posted. But you must have missed my brilliant piece about monkeys learning to pay for sex. Cutting edge stuff.
Greg- Please understand: Mike's Blog does body counts, but it doesn't think about the costs and benefits or the logical possible alternatives. It is pretty much solely concerned with calling Republicans names and assuming that the worst possible conclusion about America or American troops or Republicans is the obvious truth.
Mike, what can I say about the 128,000? It is between 3 and 5 times higher than the number reported by Iraq Body Count, the Graduate Institute of International Studies (which is not the same thing as your article suggests), the UNs number, or any other number I have seen except the ridiculous Lancet survey that you bought into late last year (the one that extrapolated over 100,000 deaths from the 74 deaths they actually tallied.
I would note that there is some dishonesty in suggesting that the full 128,000 are attributable to us. Iraq Body Count states that 9% of the 25,000 civilian dead were killed by insurgents and a surprising (to me) 36% were killed in non-war related violent crime. 37% (roughly 9,200) were killed by coalition forces.
How do you get from 25,000 to 128,000? Tough call. IBC makes the sensible point that not every death will be recorded, so perhaps 25,000 is too conservative. But, it is interesting that almost all of the groups monitoring it have the number between 22,000 and 39,000. If you gave me the numbers totally blind, my first thought would be that maybe it is 25,000 killed and 100,000 wounded. The ratio is about right. But, your source is clear that they are counting deaths only.
Second stab at it: 25,000 civilians and 100,000 troops. Note that the UPI headline says "Iraqi Civilian Casualties", but the organization reports that 128,000 Iraqis have been killed (not Iraqi Civilians).
So, I won't argue that you shouldn't believe the number. But I will point out that 78% of that number is enemy troops. Every death is a tragedy; civilian's deaths and soldier's deaths are not, however, equally bad.
Posted by: Max Power on July 20, 2005 06:28 PMAnd...special kudos for focusing on the death toll of 27 on July 13th without adding any context. Like:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 13 - A suicide car bomb was detonated today near a group of American soldiers who were distributing candy to children in a poor neighborhood here, killing as many as 27 people, about two dozen of them children, and wounding dozens more, government and hospital officials said.
Damn those American imperialists, huh?
I would still like to know:
What is the per year avg of Iraqi civilian deaths under Saddam, and how does it compare to those deaths after the current US operation?
If anyone has some good numbers and sources to compare, please post.
For me, this would useful information to add to the discourse of the actual cost of the war - namely human lives.