lol! 500,000? I haven't seen such pie-in-the-sky pencil whipping since the last time I read a business plan for an SBA loan for a minority business. Of course, I don't read the Congressional budgets, which is the champion, but your calculations are a strong second place!
OK, keep in mind that I'm talking about back-of-the-envelope.
3,000 killed or captured per month in Iraq. March 2003 through Feb 2009, let's just say, when we're finally out of the ME. 7 years * 12 months * 3K per month equals 252,000. We're half way to 500K.
I'm only guessing, keep in mind, but I'd wager that the terrorist death toll 3 1/2 years into this whole affair has been trending down rather than up, and that for long stretches it was well above 3K per month. Could this number be above 300,000? Again, I can only guess, but why not?
Then let's add some more numbers. Maybe you pick them:
How many were killed in taking Iraq in the first place?
How many terrorists have been killed by other terrorists? By militias?
How many killed in Afghanistan?
How many did the Israelis kill in Lebanon?
How many have the Saudis captured and killed in their own country?
How many by Mushareff in Pakistan?
How many dead in revenge killings or just plain tribal power plays just within Iraq?
Maybe you can get this to add to 500,000; maybe not. My range was 300,000 - 500,000+. I don't think that I'm being crazy, but maybe you could enlighten me. I'm honestly not trying to be sarcastic. I'm merely extrapolating Bush's one number, and wondering -- wondering -- if we can deduce anything comprehensive from the exercise.
("The Real Iraq Body Count"), here: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23950
This is based on some interesting info out of Iraqi morgues. You see, they actually separate people into categories, "Civilians" and "other." Guess who the "other" are?