Do you really believe that there are 50K Iraqi civilian casualties as a result of the war?

Question

Does anyone really believe these high figures they constantly claim? It annoys the heck out of me. Typical liberal propaganda. I can see maybe 500 or so casualties, but if you are going to lie, at least make it reasonable and believable.

Answer 1

How can there only be 500 casualties?  More than 3k US troops died and they had "advance" weapons.

Answer 2

Actually, the 50K estimate is very low.

A better number is 86K to 94K.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Your "500" number is so silly that it is not even worth the bother to respond to it with an insult.  Even the number of civilians killed directly by American forces is far higher than that.

Judging from your additional comments, you don't understand war, the concept of "fog of war", or the problems faced by troops in urban warfare or guerrilla conflicts.

You need a clue. A real war isn't as sanitary as the video games that you play or the adventure movies that you watch.

In the invasion of Panama, 516 civilians were killed (and many more wounded) in a conflict that lasted days, not years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...

If you want to ask a serious question about military force, come back when you grow up.

Answer 3

Hello armchair general !!! Do you understand the meaning of war? A couple of thousands were killed in just 5 days of fighting between Russia & Georgia & you think just 500 civvies died over 5 years.........unbelievable......go get yourself some education.

Answer 4

No.  Not directly.  I think many of those casualties are directly attributable to Shia death squads and Sunni terrorists as well as common criminals.  Still, there are almost certainly more than 500.  The enemy tends to hide among civilians so that they're in the crossfire.

Answer 5

500 Iraqi civilians killed?  Try getting your news from not just Fox and CNN.  Another insulated victim of the American media.

Answer 6

President Bush was willing to accept an estimate as high as 30,000 back in 2005.  

http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-engli...

"President Bush in December 2005 became the first U.S. official to publicly discuss the number of Iraqi war deaths. Answering a reporter’s question, Bush replied, 'How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis.' "

That was 2.5 years ago from a knowledgeable person who was obviously biased for a low number.

cbjack's unsubstantianted claim of a military estimate of under 1000 is complete nonsense. I cannot tell whether he is lying or just mistaken.

You also seem to be confusing several numbers ...

(1) Casualties include persons who are wounded as well as those killed.  The higher counts, above 500K, include wounded persons.

(2) The higher counts include persons killed in the violence that followed the collapse of Iraq's government as a result of the US invasion.  You seem to be trying to count only those directly killed by the actions of US military forces.

Answer 7

Since what you are claiming is demonstrably false, and since you do not allow email or instant messaging and you hide your other questions and answers, I can only assume you are a troll.  However, just in case you aren't, and for the benefit of anyone else who may read this, let's get the facts straight.

First, I don't think you mean just "casualties," I think you mean killed.  The term "casualties" includes, at least in the case of civilians, both wounded and killed.  For military personnel it also includes those missing and taken prisoner.  Even you would have to admit that there have been more than 500 Iraqi civilian casualties, and I'm about to demonstrate that there have been far more than that killed.  

The first link below is to the Iraq Body Count website, which lists between 86,000 and 95,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the invasion.  IBC does not claim to account for all civilian deaths, only those that are reported by at least two sources.  Even then their totals are far higher than your ridiculously, and insultingly, low number.

In 2006 "The Lancet," a prestigioius British medical journal, published it's results regarding a study of Iraqi deaths since the invasion.  This study determined that there had been around 600,000 "excess" Iraqi deaths, i.e., deaths that would not have occurred except for the invasion.  This study, although roundly criticized by proponents of the war, used standard techniques for determining death rates, the same ones that have been used for decades and in other places in the world where there was no criticism of the results.  Further, the 600K number was the mid-range number, the one considered the most reliable.  The study noted that the total could have been much higher.

In the two years since then there is no doubt that more Iraqis have died.  An updated estimate of the Iraqi death rate puts the number at more than a million (see second link).

I have been a student of military history for more than forty-years (unless I miss my guess, longer than you have been alive).  The history of modern warfare, at least over the last sixty years, has seen the ratio of civilian to military deaths rise until typically civilians account for more than 90% of the deaths in war.  Even if the roughly 4200 Americans killed in the invasion and occupation of Iraq represent only 10% of the people killed, that still means there have been some 36,000 Iraqis killed.

By any of these measures, there have been tens of thousands of Iraqis killed over the last sixty-five months, since the beginning of the invasion in March, 2003.  Still don't believe me?  Then check out the third link below, a report that shows that there were more than 1500 Iraqis killed in September and October of last year alone.  Your suggestion of a paltry 500 Iraqis killed in more than five years is not only patently ridiculous, it is either the result of willful ignorance, ideological blindness, or just plain stupidity.  

Answer 8

No. I don't believe anything put out by the anti America mass media. It's all just propaganda. The military estimates less than 1000.

Answer 9

1 million sounds more like the truth.  

Answer 10

the bigger question is who cares? if they arent wearing a uniform from the u.s.a. or our aliies, they don't count.