Left I on the News

Who knows how many Iraqis have died thanks to the U.S. invasion? The Iraqi Health Ministry sure doesn't. Here was the news report less than one week ago:

The Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior reported a total of 13,900 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers died last year.

Advance forward just five days to today's assertion:

In the first six months of last year, 5,640 Iraqi civilians and police officers were killed, but that number more than tripled to 17,310 in the latter half of the year, according to data provided by a Health Ministry official

That's 22,950 total, nearly twice as high as reported less than a week earlier. And note, as I always do, that even if accurate (which the Johns Hopkins study strongly suggests it is not), this figure does not include any Iraqis who aren't categorized as "civilians," which pretty much means every Iraqi killed by American or British forces, whether they actually are part of the resistance or not, and it also doesn't include the many Iraqis dying due to the poor state of health care and of public health conditions (water, sewage, etc.).

Out now!