[Peace-discuss] Iraq Body Count

[Stuart Levy]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2007 at 11:02:20AM -0700, Chuck Minne wrote:
> Here is a link to the Iraq body count;
>     http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
>    
>   which shows this:

      [Min of 59408, Max of 65246]

>   
>    
>   This site shows the casualty count for the Iraq Coalition:
>    
>   http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx
>    
>   I have no idea as to how accurate either site is, but the seem to indicate
>   that there is room for disagreement on the Iraq body count issue.

I can't speak to icasualties.org either.  But note that iraqbodycount.org,
as they note themselves (see "About the project" link), intentionally
counts just media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq.  This is a very
good thing for them to do, but it's clear that the media are able
to see only a small portion of the "action", so their estimates are
quite conservative -- even though the numbers that the Bush Admin. mentions
are much smaller still.

So I don't see the iraqbodycount.org figures as contradicting those
from the two Johns Hopkins studies.  Better to see them as a measure
of the limited scope the media are able to have in Iraq.


While I'm posting this: I'd recently somewhere heard a much higher
estimate of *US* deaths in Iraq since the invasion began, something
like 9000+ people.  I've no idea what the basis for that was,
if any.  Including contractors?  Including US military dying in
non-combat ways, like heart attacks or auto accidents?  Including
suicides of those who served in Iraq and later returned to the US?
Or is it just speculation?  Does anyone else recognize this figure?

    Stuart Levy