>>>In all, 40,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the conflict, she concluded, putting total Iraqi losses from the war and its aftermath at 158,000, including 86,194 men, 39,612 women, and 32,195 children.<<<
businessweek.com
Iraq v. Iran estimates vary, but a round number of 600,000 Iranian and 400,000 Iraqi deaths has been cited; Saddam claims to have killed 180,000 Kurds, however the US Dept. of State estimates 30,000 to 60,000. The USDS also estimates 1,000 Kuwaitis were killed during that invasion.
usinfo.state.gov
And, no doubt, he's slaughtered thousands more of his political enemies, including his own son, Kamel.
Is Saddam a death merchent? You bet!
Much like the blame and liability will become assigned to applicable parties involved in the Rhode Island nightclub fire, were the Iran v. Iraq War to be concluded similarly, who knows what the US threshold for blame would the US share. But, at a minimum, some is a fair answer.
All things in balance, the US indeed had some role relative to the Iraq-Iranian War, given the US did everything possible to keep the United Nations from condeming its attack on Iran, the US government aided Saddam covertly, and US corporations, among others from other nations, aided him on the war supply trail. Remember, the US at that time had absolutely no love for Iran. Which made the Iran-Contra, the supplying of arms to Iran via Israel, while Iran was at war with Iraq, all the more fascinating. A simple conclusion would be the US wanted that war to go on and on and on.
So, it can be reasonably argued that America, because it helped prolong that war, picks up some of the tab of responsibility for those million deaths.
So add whatever number fairly derived from Iran vs. Iraq, add in the deaths from the last Gulf War and then add in the deaths that'll result from the next war, which could become very extensive should a Battle for Baghdad happen in conjunction with a Shock and Awe bombing campaign, and the overall number of Iraqi deaths resulting from American influence could become very substantial, possibly at or even near the number of Iraqi deaths caused by the dictator himself.
I submit there's no modern example of a city of 5.5 million population (possibly higher due to migrations from the northern and southern no-fly zones) being overrun militarily. The closest example is Stalingrad where two million died.
Other considerations:
smh.com.au
english.pravda.ru
gulfweb.org
voy.com |
