A recent study has set a new guidepost for anti-war arguments — the death of 25,000 innocent Iraqis.
Nearly 25,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the Iraq war, according to a group that tracks the civilian death toll from the conflict.
The Iraq Body Count — a London-based group comprising academics and human rights and anti-war activists — said on Tuesday that 24,865 civilians had died between March 20, 2003 and March 19, 2005 [Jeez, London-based? I’d have waited a wee bit longer if I were them].
The group said 42,500 injuries were recorded as well.
Actually, as cold as it may sound, those figures don’t sound unreasonable, given an entire country being militarily defeated and then subjected to two-plus years of ongoing terrorist activity, the burden of which has been cowardly projected upon the civilian populace by our enemies. Compare these numbers to the approximately 43,000 killed in the London Blitz by one side. Oh yeah, throw on over 139,000 Brits wounded for a twisted topping and the cruel but unfortunate numbers may come into perspective.
The report also said that “U.S.-led forces were sole killers of 37 percent of civilian victims” and that “anti-occupation forces were sole killers of 9 percent of civilian victims.” It added that “criminals killed 36 percent of all civilians.”
I’ll buy the 25K, but I’ll need to see a bit more substantiation for this distribution of blame. They seem a little light on the “anti-occupation” category, given the wealth of recent terrorist bloodbaths. As a little side note, please realize that “anti-occupation” is the latest buzzword from al Jazeera, where even the terrorists comprising Hezbollah are glorified as anti-occupation fighters.
Still, this 25K figure is far more reasonable than the previous 100,000 that has been so flaunted by the leftists, defeatists and pacifists.