100,000 Iraqi Civilians...Saved, Not Killed?

Logic Times ^ | 7-22-06 | Dan Hallagan

[Logic Times]

Fuzzy Moral Math

Editor's Note: The fiction of 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties has survived to this day in part because of the tantalizing propaganda value of such a large number. How many lightly informed people have tossed this number at you in debate without even realizing that the Lancet study doesn’t measure casualties at all?

Now the number of 100,000 Iraqi civilians has new relevance, as the Iraqi Survival Count has surpassed the Lancet tally of "excess deaths." While I am not hopeful that the Iraqi Survival Count will enjoy the same exposure in the media as the Lancet death calculation, I do hope that it helps drive home the point that the plight of the average Iraqi civilian has improved since the coalition intervention, and that is just a measure of physical risk. The journey from despair to liberty has value that cannot be measured.

Before reading (or rereading) the Fuzzy Moral Math essay, I would like to make a few comments based upon 18 months of experience defending my calculations.

[Logic Times]

Graphics extensive - follow the link.

[garjog]

Well done and thanks for the arguments.

The sectarian killing in Iraq in the last weeks looks really bad on television and I hear that the Iranians are sending in more terrorists to up the body count.

Still deposing Saddam can be justified on humanitarian grounds alone. We have put away one of histories worst mass killers and to do nothing while he brutally tortured and snuffed out innocent people over and over again would be far worse than taking the action that we did. Let's hope Iraqi democracy works.

[ThePythonicCow]

bump

[ClaireSolt]

Thanks! That's great.

[daviddennis]

I've always thought the figures would play out in a similar way to how they do in your essay, but I was too lazy to do the math.

Thank you for going through the figures so I don't have to :-).

D

[Question_Assumptions]

Yes, take a few minutes to read how these "studies" get their 100,000 figure and what they are counting. Some of the deaths they are counting are like counting the 19 terrorists on 9/11 as victims of 9/11. Of course that makes sense when you remember that leftists care more about the enemies of America than either Americans or innocents. That's why they favor letting child molesters back out on the streets to molest again and kill. They are more about the criminal and deviant than their innocent victims.

[Logic Times]

In addition, all the terrorists and Iraqi police killed are counted in the IBC numbers as they technically count as civilians. Yet, do you hear that information when the numbers are thrown about? No, you hear "civilian casualties" followed by a big number. The essense of propaganda.

[MosesKnows]

the plight of the average Iraqi civilian has improved since the coalition intervention

The death rate in Iraq has actually decreased since Saddam Hussein was removed from power.

There are 183 countries with a death rate per 1,000 higher than Iraq. Those countries include North and South Korea, Cuba, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Japan, Spain, the UK, the EU, and the United States of America.

The world death rate per 1,000 is 8.67; Iraq is 5.37.