The Coffeespy

The number of civilians killed in Iraq “because of the U.S.” is regularly trotted out by the anti-war crowd.  The current toll stands somewhere around 50,000 according to sources used by many news outlets.  In Hussien’s trial, where evidence is heard and not just invented by web sites adding numbers reported through other media already under fire for being dishonest, some staggering tallies were made known.

From the NYT story (note that these items are out of order, just cut and pasting numbers):

…south of Samawa in Iraq’s southern desert, more than 600 automatic rifle rounds had been used to kill the 114 victims, 85 of them children…

…two mass graves near Hatra, southwest of the northern city of Mosul, he said, a quarter of the 25 women killed and a similar proportion of the 98 children who died suffered no gunshot wounds, suggesting, though Mr. Trimble did not say so, that some may have been buried alive…

Another feature common to all 17 mass graves the forensic team examined, he said, was that the killers chose remote desert sites, hidden from distant view by ridges and hills.

The sites were chosen from among more than 200 mass graves identified since the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003…

On Nov. 7, Mr. Hussein and two associates were sentenced to death in another case, involving the execution of 148 men and boys from the Shiite town of Dujail. Testimony in that case ended last summer as the Anfal case began.

The testimony seems likely to stand as the closest any account will get to the final torment suffered by many of the 180,000 Kurds prosecutors say were killed in the campaign.

And that’s only the Kurds.  If you’d care to see more of Hussein’s work on the Kurds, I urge you to visit this site on Halabja.  When I deployed to Iraqi Freedom I did some research before hand.  My parents were unsure we should be over there.  The pictures on this web site got them on board pretty quick.

Blog entries and editorials have been published that declare Iraq is much worse off now than it was under Hussein.  When you combine the numbers, pictures, and willful methodology of Hussein and compare that to the last three years under the U.S. led effort it’s fairly simple to see when things were worse.

Under the U.S., civilian deaths are regretable mistakes, and ones we must take responsibility for.

Under Hussein, civlian deaths were government policy.  You don’t accidentally order tons of precursor chemicals, mix them up, and extermine a town.  You do accidentally kill civilians in buildings from which you’re taking fire.

The difference is motive and scale.  Argue against the war all you want, the death toll amongst civilians is not a strong one to use, though.

A short note for the “well the U.S. gave them the weapons” crowd that pops up every single time Halabja is referenced, do your research.  That line is an absolute partisan recitation that doesn’t even approach the truth.  From IraqWarch.org: By far, the largest suppliers of precursors for chemical weapons production were in Singapore (4,515 tons), the Netherlands (4,261 tons), Egypt (2,400 tons), India (2,343 tons), and Federal Republic of Germany (1,027 tons). One Indian company, Exomet Plastics (now part of EPC Industrie) sent 2,292 tons of precursor chemicals to Iraq.

Elsewhere 

The Boll Weevil puts it into personal perspective.  Whatever the numbers, there is a human cost… actually, a human loss is probably a much better way of putting it in light of Boll Weevil’s article.  I think this is a very valuable piece added to the conversation.