[extropy-chat] IRAQ: Weapons pipeline to Syria

Stephen Van_Sickle sjvans at ameritech.net
Fri Oct 29 20:25:30 UTC 2004


--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:

> Meanwhile, authoritative estimates say 100,000
> Iraqis have been killed, 
> more than half women and kids, mostly by coalition
> forces. Never mind, 
> though. There'll be a contrary report along any
> minute now.

Just who are these "authorities"?  The web site Iraq
Body Count:

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/database/

by no means a pro-war site, lists their maximum as
16,312.  An appalling number, yes, but nowhere near
"100,000".  It is possilbe that there are unreported
deaths, but unless you think that US forces are
secretly staging mass executions and secretly burying
them, I doubt it is anywhere near 6 times as many. 
And these web site guys are good...they track down all
reports, including from volunteers on site.  They have
facts to back them up, not guesses or estimates.  If
anything, they are probably on the high side, since
I'm sure some "civilian" deaths are actually
combatants, since they are illegally fighting without
uniform or insignia.  An easy mistake to make, even if
you are trying not to.  But between unreported and
misreported deaths, I suspect it is probably a wash. 

It could be you or someone else is mistaking the word
"casualty" to mean death.  It actually means dead
*and* injured, and a 6 to 1 ratio of injured to dead
is in the right area, so I would not be surprised at
100,000 "casualties", that is dead *and* injured.





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