Hi all; Our hands are quite bloody in Iraq:
While US KIA are widely reported, it's hard to get accurate numbers for Iraqis killed. Every now and then the military gives a body count, but since the public outside of Iraq cares so little about Iraqis, the articles only mention Iraqi deaths in passing. A headline will mention "2 US soldiers wounded", and only in the article will the number of Iraqis killed be mentioned. But with that caveat, here's a recounting of the body count for the last 3 days in Iraq. Note that I am not counting Iraqis who are killed by Iraqi bombs or the Iraqi police, just the ones that the foreigners, the Coalition Provisional Authority, kill.
Date Iraqis killed by CPA
01/12/04: 9
01/11/04: 6
01/10/04: 7
If these last three days are representative, and I believe that they are, our guys are killing around, 7 Iraqis per day, or about 51 per week, 2700 per year. We only have about 140,000 soldiers in Iraq, which is about 1/2140 of our population. So if our country's death rate due to violence was equal to the rate at which our soldiers kill Iraqis, our country's death rate would be about 2140x2700 per year or 5.8 million per year.
Killing is not a good thing to have to be a part of. The sacrifices of our soldiers are more than to just their own KIA and WIA. They must also sacrifice by being in a position where they are forced to kill other men.
-- Carl
P.S. Details:
SEVEN Iraqis believed to have been stealing fuel from a pipeline were killed in a firefight with US troops near Samarra, north of Baghdad, the US military said today.
theaustralian.news.com.au
Also Monday, a roadside bomb exploded near an Army convoy in Ramadi but the military said no U.S. casualties were reported. Local residents said two Iraqis were killed when the Americans opened fire after the attack.
sfgate.com
Protest in south Iraq after police, British kill 5
reuters.com
One man "in the process of throwing a device" was shot dead by the soldiers, the British spokeswoman said.
abcnews.go.com
Guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at US troops in western Iraq, leaving one US soldier injured, as an insurgent was killed in a firefight with coalition troops, the US military said on Saturday.
khaleejtimes.com
and insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at US troops near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. The soldiers returned fire, killing two Iraqis and wounding one, the military said.
hipakistan.com
In the tense northern city of Kirkuk, two Iraqi policemen were killed by mistaken US military gunfire, according to the police chief.
...
In a third incident soldiers from the 8th Infantry Regiment came under rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire near the town of Samarra and returned fire, killing two and wounding one, the spokesman added.
channelnewsasia.com |
