Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wadi al-Salam Cemetery, Najaf, Iraq
To fathom just how destructive the U.S. invasion of Iraq has been for Iraqis, imagine if 1.2 million Americans had died violent deaths from 2003 until now. That would be the proportional equivalent to the number of Iraqis who have perished as a result of warfare since U.S. forces first rolled in six years ago. In reality, the number of Americans who were murdered during the same period has been about 100,000.
After tabulating official records released by the Baghdad government and tallies from hospitals and other sources, the Associated Press concluded that 110,600 Iraqis (or 0.38% of the total population) have died as a result of violence, such as shootings, bombings, mortar attacks and beheadings.
This number is actually a minimum estimation. An Iraqi official told the AP that the actual number of deaths is probably 10-20% higher because of thousands who are still missing and civilians who were buried in the chaos of war without official records. In addition, the total excludes those who have died indirectly from the war-torn situation as a result of poor health care, failing infrastructure and stress.
The Iraq Health Ministry has tallied death certificates since 2005, but two years later, when sectarian violence was putting political pressure on the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Iraqi officials stopped releasing numbers.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Secret Tally has 87,215 Iraqis Dead (by Kim Gamel, Associated Press)
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