Posted on 11/16/2005 11:26:54 AM PST by Maceman
Can anyone provide annual figures for the number of Iraqis killed by Saddam's regime in the year(s) before our invasion?
Thanks in advance.
119/day, ~43000/year
Do you have a source for that?
I keep hearing from anti-war types how our invasion cost the lives of 15,000 Iraqis.
But if your number is correct, then we actually saved more than 35,000 lives a year by invading.
Nice comeback to the Democrats, if it's true. Is it?
I tell my leftists friends this, that had we not invaded, the sanctions would still be in place. According to the leftists, these sanctions were killing anywhere from 30k to 1 million people a year. Makes us such heros.
I remember the figure from having done the math way back when we were arguing with the Left over whether to depose him... it worked out to 119 per day every day for the entire 23 years of his despotism. I'll see if I can dredge up a source for you.
That number was debunked long ago to the point where onlythe hardcore loonie leftists buy it.
The number I have heard more often is 15,000.
Iraqi attacks on the Kurds continued throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), culminating in 1988 with poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages to quash resistance and with the rounding up and execution of male Kurds. All of resulted in some 200,000 Kurdish deaths in that year alone.
http://berclo.net/page03/03en-notes-kurds.html
www.CIA.gov
They produce all the figures for everything.............
In Iraq under Saddam, if you are a woman, you could face:
Beheading. Under the pretext of fighting prostitution, units of "Fedayeen Saddam," the paramilitary organization led by Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, have beheaded in public more than 200 women throughout the country, dumping their severed heads at their families' doorsteps. Many families have been required to display the victim's head on their outside fences for several days. These barbaric acts were carried out in the total absence of any proper judicial procedures and many of the victims were not engaged in prostitution, but were targeted for political reasons.
* * *
Murder. In 1990, Saddam Hussein introduced Article 111 into the Iraqi Penal Code in a calculated effort to strengthen tribal support for his regime. This law exempts men who kill their female relatives in defense of their family's honor from prosecution and punishment. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women reported that more than 4,000 women have been victims of so-called "honor killings" since Article 111 went into effect. (UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, January 2002)
But they still throw it around. Some public radio station out of Chicago just did a piece on it last week. Revisiting the number a year later type of thing.
You're fast! Welcome to FR too!
Kill tally: Approaching two million, including between 150,000 and 340,000 Iraqis and between 450,000 and 730,000 Iranians killed during the Iran-Iraq War. An estimated 1,000 Kuwaiti nationals killed following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. No conclusive figures for the number of Iraqis killed during the Gulf War, with estimates varying from as few as 1,500 to as many as 200,000. Over 100,000 Kurds killed or "disappeared".
No reliable figures for the number of Iraqi dissidents and Shi'ite Muslims killed during Hussein's reign, though estimates put the figure between 60,000 and 150,000. (Mass graves discovered following the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 suggest that the total combined figure for Kurds, Shi'ites and dissidents killed could be as high as 300,000). Approximately 500,000 Iraqi children dead because of international trade sanctions introduced following the Gulf War. ========================
So 300,000/23 years equals 13,000 per year (not counting those killed in the Gulf War and the war with Iran).
So if the 15,000 figure is true, in the 30 months since the invasion, that has averaged 6000 per year.
So the way I see it, we saved 7,000 lives per year by invading.
Actually, not to get off on a tangent, but on the topic of the 100,000 number - If I recall both the Salon and TechCentral articles debunking the study were in themselves debunked. Is there another source out there examining the Lancet study that has withstood the test of time? I need to send something to my family in reference to the story I mentioned in my other post.
What a fantastic link! THX!!
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