Iraqi civilian death toll not as bad as originally thought, says the AP.

It's good news.

But even if the allies killed 5000 civilians (unlikely), it is useful to put things in perspective: in World War II, the Britain and the US killed two million civilians. Many of them intentionally.

And Saddam was killing 5000 of his own people in a good month of "peace."


Choice bits:

Saddam himself killed many more civilians during his bloody rule than the casualties caused by the war. Since his fall, families armed with newly emerged lists of secret cemeteries have been unearthing the remains of thousands of people believed to be victims of the government's brutality.

The United States said its sophisticated weaponry minimized the toll, and around the country are sites that, to look at them, bolster that claim: missiles that tore deep into government buildings but left the surrounding houses untouched.

''Did the Americans bomb civilians? Yes. But one should be realistic,'' said Dr. Hameed Hussein al-Aaraji, the new director of Baghdad's al-Kindi Hospital. ''Saddam ran a dirty war. He put weapons inside schools, inside mosques. What could they do?''


- posted by total @ 6/13/2003 06:09:00 AM .