So?
Researchers at America’s Johns Hopkins School of Public Health have put the civilian death toll in Iraq at 655,000.
The top US General in Iraq, George Casey, commented that “violence and progress coexist in Iraq and we shouldn’t be distracted from the positive things that are going on there, amidst all the violence.” So the idea that perhaps 655,000 have been killed isn’t disturbing to him.
Actually, it doesn’t seem to be disturbing to anyone particularly. Bush said that he was amazed how well “the Iraqi people tolerate violence.” Well, not that they have much choice, but it’s true that they are a violent people and seem to find torturing and then killing each other to be very entertaining.
The real interest in this report is in how accurate it is and in the methods used to arrive at its conclusions. There’s considerable debate going on over this among the professional pollsters. The concept of 50,000 dead versus 655,000 has a momentary shock value which quickly fades, but the means of arriving at the larger figure is the real and enduring topic in the news.
50,000 mostly civilian deaths from war is a lot of people. 655,000 almost all civilian deaths is huge. The only ones who care are Iraqis. No one else cares. Other Arabs don’t care. Other nations don’t care. The only caring apparent here is for the quality of the polling method. Why is this? If this were happening in a European country there would be a real outcry. Look at Bosnia, for instance, and that’s European fringe. Look at the civilians killed in the theater in Russia and the outrage over that, and how many of us really give a damn about Russia?
No one cares because the Iraqi muslims are such a hateful and violent lot. They torture and murder each other. They engage in the slaughter of their own, which has arguably caused most of the deaths. If it were happening in any other Islamic country, no one would care either. Look at what’s going on between Fatah and Hamas in Palestine and Gaza. Open warfare between them. Who cares? If the Taliban and Hezbollah began slaughtering each other and their fellow Iranians, Syrians and Pakistanis by the tens of thousands, no one would care.
Too many marchers signs saying “Islam will dominate”, too many little children turned into suicide bombers, too many people terrorized over some ordinary cartoons, too many of us killed by muslims acts of terror, too many rapes, too many imams preaching hate and death against us, too much intolerance, too much arrogance, too many attacks on Democratic values, too much refusal to accept our culture. Too much murderous insanity.
The reaction to that Iraq death toll poll makes it very clear how the world really feels about Islam and those who practice it. The MSM has finally slipped up on its Political Correctness and allowed a real truth to come out:
We in the West are disgusted with muslims and we don’t care if they all die. Just don’t do it around us.
October 12th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
and the echo of thenail is heard in the still halls of the world. Youhave driven home hard and truthfully. The real question is, not how many civilians have been killed, but by whom. Think it is easy to see that it has been, and shall continue to be that it is the muslims themselves that are doing 90% of the killing whilst we from the west are attempting to rebuild and save lives. Not only theirs, but others in the world as well.
October 12th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
That comes to 600 people a day. You think someone might have noticed all those bodies piling up in the street if these numbers are accurate?
Another example of nonsense being accepted as fact.
October 12th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
You miss the point, Denny. It’s not about how many, it’s about the attitude toward that count. However, I’ll respond to your comment:
I don’t recall reading anywhere that the figure was accepted as fact, nor did I say it was fact.
600 a day would be about 3 years worth of fighting. The war has been going on for 5 years so that would actually be about 360 a day. Still a seemingly high figure but civilian body discoveries running from 60 to 100 tortured and murdered a day are fairly common, and there are constant civilian deaths daily, sometimes 3 or 4 times daily, of suicide bomber and roadside bombs and car and truck bombs killing groups of people, as well as the constant attacks of daylight death squads pulling people off busses and killing them and stopping pedestrians in the street and killing them, besides those killed by our own troops during action.
Only a portion of all these deaths are reported by the media. No one has been keeping a strict body count and our “Official” count is under 50,000 civilians. That’s bad enough. Certainly our government would not want to tout even higher figures of civilian slaughter.
Considering the massive chaos in Iraq being caused by virtually all sides, a death count of a 1000 a day would not be out of line.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Some would argue that we should care, but as a factual analysis of attitudes it’s probably bang on.
I used to be very pro-Palestinian but seeing the attitudes they cling to and instill into their children, I have come more and more to the view that they are a waste of space. I was and still am totally opposed to the Iraq war but not yet blind enough to notice that most of the civilian casualties since the invasion have not been not caused by US troops.
As for the figure, it sounds distinctly overblown, but better than the official one. I recall our own home secretary put it at “tens of thousands” about two years ago and Christian groups estimated it between 5 and 10k in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. 50 thousand to date looks like utter crap. I do note in today’s news that the US/UK governments have avoided keeping tallies of Iraquis casualties. Very convenient!
October 16th, 2006 at 2:20 am
How said Dostoievski in “The Karamazovi Brothers”:
“The vibours devours each other”
Every free muslim people has what deserves…
Absolute Evil is self-destructive.