100,000 Dead Iraqis??????

November 13, 2004

For some time I’ve heard from agitated liberals — excuse the redundancy — that the U.S. is evil, or at least the current administration is, because it is responsible for killing some 100,000 innocent Iraqis, so who do we Christian conservatives think we are talking about moral issues?

But in the last few days I’ve noticed a wave of e-mails on the subject, as if some orchestrated campaign is going on out there in liberal la la land. Could someone please tell me where this 100,000 figure comes from? I bet we haven’t killed anywhere close to that number of guilty Iraqis (insurgents and terrorists) and foreign terrorists assisting the insurgents, and we’ve studiously tried to avoid civilian casualties, so how do these off-the-wall reports originate and circulate? I’m serious. If anyone has a legitimate news source on this I’d like to see it. In the meantime, check out a few of the e-mails I’ve received just today on this.

First e-mail:

Pro-life? yeah…nearly 1200 mislead soldiers and an estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians had a right to life too…only a hypocrite would vote pro-choice and pro pre-emptive strike and marginalize collateral damage…but I’ve come to expect nothing less from the Bush circus of deception and criminal negligence…

Second:

So now the job of government is to push right wing Christian values? I guess we’re diviating from the intent of our founding fathers. What true Christian would OK the killing of 100,000 Iraqi civilians (many women and children)?

Third:

Is the murder of 100,000 Iraqi citizens, mostly women and children, in line with your so-called “moral values”? You are a hippocrite, and i would call it to your face. The “right to life” is NOT the most important issue, but one that was made important, because the religious right is easy to fool. If you had any morals at all, you would see that the top issues are the tremendous poverty and lack of health care in the U.S., yet billions of dollars are spent on an occupation of a country (Iraq) that should never have been invaded, and at the cost of 100,000 Iraqi citizens, and you know it. It is selfish to make abortion the top issue. By the way, there were more abortions under Bush than under Clinton. Poverty breeds abortion, and with the middle-class being squeezed, that is what naturally occurs, no matter what laws exist.

The dems didnt win because we are not as devious as the reps, and we didnt steal the election.

And here’s a fourth, though the 100,000 figure isn’t used:

So you have the right moral hirarchy??? Where on earth is it right and moral to kill innocent children, women, and men just to steal their oil??? In Bushland? Don’t give me that ……

Update I: A reader was kind enough to send me a story on the 100,000 “killed” Iraqis. The link to the story is here. It seems to me more like a poll than hard evidence. I remain highly skeptical. But CNN and MSNBC, also carried the story. Surely these reports couldn’t be politicized. …

Update II: This article in Slate seems to suggest that the 100,000 figure is greatly exaggerated.

Update III: Check out this fascinating Daily Standard online Weekly Standard) article debunking the methodology of these types of body counts: “Body Count, Inside the Voodoo Science of Calculating Civilian Casualties.”

Update IV: Check out this interesting blog post from Nebraskanews Blog, which I noticed, with gratitude, has a link to my site.

Update V: Here’s an insightful note from my e-mail correspondent, Kim, who has graciously provided me with a number of these links:

One last note. Many thousands of Iraqi civilians died during Hussein’s reign. Not to mention that after the invasion, Saddam Hussein was doing his best to raise civilian casualties, by planting weapons systems and soldiers in the midst of the civilian population, and forcing other civilians to ring military installations so that they might become victims (for showing on television), etc.

Thanks for the great blog.

Update VI: Richard, at thisisrich.blogspot, adds this to the discussion:

Just now read your latest entry about the 100,000 death figure and here’s an essential link which will answer the question. The story originated from the British medical journal, The Lancet. OBL, himself only attributes 15,000 deaths……

Michael Fumento has debunked the story. It’s linked here: http://www.fumento.com/military/lancetscripps.html

Check it out! Dennis Prager interviewed him last week.

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