Comments on: Updated: Rotten Reporting Again (About Those 650 Thou Dead in Iraq)

By: Stephen W. Browne

Stephen W. Browne — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 16:08:10 +0000

This, and perhaps your previous post, raises the spectre of the libertarian heresy that perhaps a stable authoritarianism is better than anarchy. Or as Barbara Tuchman put it, “Disorder is the least tolerable of social states.”

At one time I’d have been tempted to disagree, but I remember a vacation in Tunisia where I saw what seemed a reasonably happy and prosperous country thriving on tourism and the local wine industry. (In a Muslim country no less!)

This was under the regime of President-for-life Whatsisname with his massive but relatively unobtrusive police force, and what seemed to be a policy of “Enjoy yourselves, have fun and make money. Just pay your taxes and don’t ever forget who’s in charge.”

This may be the best the Arab Islamic world is ever going to get for a while to come.

http://rantsand.blogspot.com/

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:34:41 +0000

Not to put too fine a point on it, suggest that ANY additional deaths are acceptable, nor endorse the prosecution of this current war, but the baseline figures here are at best, questionable.
Initial Iraqi death stats, (at the start of the war), were drawn primarily from Coroners’ and mortuary figures. The several thousand people found, (so far) steam-shovelled into mass graves, likely hadn’t as much chance to nip by the local mortuary to register their deaths as they might’ve liked. While I realize this doesn’t stand up to the sheer numbers of both civilian and military and police deaths which have occurred and been racking up since the “War to Liberate Iraq”, (or resumption of Gulf War hostilities if you prefer), but the post-war destabilization of the region seems to have caused more of the high numbers than the, (3-week) war. The newest figures also fail to distiguish between service, civilian and indeed terrorist deaths, (this last column likely fairly low as a percentage, but one Does want to be accurate when listing numbers). These minor distinctions, while of presumably no comfort to the dead and bereaved, give separate distinction between those innocent casualties, and those whose chosen professions include a heightened expectation of fatality.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 01:08:48 +0000

Every time the truth comes out,the source is discredit and vilified. It seems to many of us, that our lives are worthy more so than any other life on the globe. Our arrogance and “we are the most powerful Country on planet earth” attitude, will eventually be our downfall.

By: Bill Anderson

Bill Anderson — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:53:13 +0000

Whether the real number is 650,000 or one-tenth that, we still are faced with the fact that this unwarranted invasion of Iraq is not the “noble cause” that Bush and the Neocons continue to tell us.