Iraq death toll no longer a secret

[d.mcc]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's government has recorded 87,215 of its citizens killed since 2005, in violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings, according to government statistics obtained by the Associated Press that break open one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war.

More after the Jump:

http://freep.com/article/20090424/NEWS07/904240340

[ccbatson]

Now it is elevated to a rumor...up from being a secret.

[jams]

Now it is elevated to a rumor...up from being a secret.
Guess it wasn't reported on Cc's favorite source of bias.

[Blarf]

Well, that's much more believable than the 400,000 + deaths claimed by the liberal media.

[jams]

Whatever the correct number is. Was it necessary?

[jams]

I live in a city of +/- 40,000 people. Please explain the benefits of killing off twice to 10x of that population.

[MIRepublic]

This is just since 2005. Did everyone seem to forget when we went in and how many people died between that time and 2005?

[Blarf]

Whatever the correct number is. Was it necessary?

No. The war/invasion was bullshit.

It's my opinion that if Iraq didn't have oil, no one would care about their existence.

[d.mcc]

This is just since 2005. Did everyone seem to forget when we went in and how many people died between that time and 2005?

This is the RECORDED since 2005. If you read the article, it basically says that the number was taken from newspaper clippings and matched up as best as possible with the Iraqi Gov't. The number could be as high as 110k since 2005. Don't you just love freedom???

[gibran]

87-or 100 ...when you think about the real names of the people...the children, the mothers and fathers...ask yourself was this neocon folly worth it to gain access to oil and to protect our allies (Israel and the Suadi's)...I am glad things are working out ...but that is because OUR brave men and women and the pressure to do it right from our citizens here..if we left it to the Bush gang and the neocons they would be still be high fiving each other and declaring Mission accomplished. The surge worked becuase we got outraged over the lack of planning, equipment an dhigh civilian deaths...an dgot involved...then things changed

[MrJones]

"...think about the real names of the people...the children, the mothers and fathers..."

If you're going to take a mental image of the of the conflict, take this one:
The gift of freedom voluntarily given to the remaining millions of Iraqis. Purple thumbs!
The vast majority of the unfortunate casualties prospered under the previous regime and stood to lose it.
As for our doing it for oil, at the core that's undeniable, but the bigger reason was in answer to 9 - 11. I know, I know, we weren't attacked by Iraq, but -

We were attacked by a part of Islam. More than once. A legitimate group which has multiple nations, no uniformed army and would rather not stand and fight its "enemies" in the open.
The more I consider it, our planting the seed of Freedom and Capitalism in the Middle East (Iraq) was genius. Genius.
Look, this is the slow way, but it will transform our enemies (which THEY declare, not us) into allies, with a common goal of trading peacefully with those of different beliefs, but with common goals. To make an honest living and watch as our children grow up happy and healty as possible.
The first step was the most violent in nature for us, but other nations will stand up to claim their right to freedom and the fighting will then happen in the marketplace.
That's better than warfare with armies or suicide missions.
I believe in Capitalism enough to believe it can work.

[ccbatson]

Necessary? Whatever it takes to convey the sense of strength necessary to deter further attacks.

[Gannon]

WHAT attacks, Cc?

[Gistok]

Lets see... if you take the number of attackers from Iraq that were involved in the 9/11 attacks, and add to it the number of attackers in the Cole Ship attack near Yemen, and add to it the number of attackers of the 2 US Embassies in Africa... the total number is.... ZERO!

Unless the attack means the number of WMD's (still zero) that we went into Iraq to find. And now that we're still bogged down in Iraq... neighboring Iran and North Korea are creating WMDs... but we're too bogged down in Iraq to do anything about those WMDs...

Funny that...

[ccbatson]

Gannon...missed the word "deter", did you?