The
Los Angeles Times has done a pretty thorough investigation trying to determine the number of Iraqis to die violently since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
The conclusion:
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to statistics from the Baghdad morgue, the Iraqi Health Ministry and other agencies -- a toll 20,000 higher than previously acknowledged by the Bush administration.
Many more Iraqis are believed to have been killed but have not been counted because of serious lapses in recording the number of deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning Iraqi government, and continued spotty reporting nationwide.
More from LA Times (not online yet):
The toll, which is dominated by civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it's as if 600,000 Americans had been killed nationwide during the last three years. In the same period, at least 2,520 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq.
The Times points out the difficulties in arriving at an accurate body count amid the ongoing chaos. Official sources like the Health Ministry and Baghdad morque are simply not getting all reported deaths.
The Baghdad morgue received 30,204 bodies from 2003 through mid-2006, while the Health Ministry said it had documented 18,933 deaths from what was described as military clashes and terrorist attacks between April 5, 2004, and June 1, 2006. Taken together, the violent death toll reaches 49,173. But samples obtained from local health departments in other provinces show an undercount that brings the total number well beyond 50,000.
...
At the Baghdad morgue, the vast majority of victims have been shot execution-style. Many show signs of torture -- drill holes, burns, missing eyes and limbs, officials there say. Others have been strangled, beheaded, stabbed or beaten to death.
The morgue records show a predominantly civilian toll; the hospital records gathered by the Health Ministry do not distinguish among civilians, combatants and security forces.
and the death toll is NOT slowing down:
Health Ministry figures for May in each of the past three years shows the rate of war-related deaths nearly tripling nationwide, from 334 in May 2004 to 1,154 last month. And while the violence has escalated, it also has become increasingly centralized. At least 2,532 people were killed nationwide last month. Of those, 2,155 -- or 85 percent -- died in Baghdad.
The Times has a great page one tomorrow. This will be the lead story, and they are running a very interesting piece on the Greenland ice cap's rapid melting across the top of the page too.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post will have this online shortly:
WASHINGTON--In late January 2003, as then-Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors.
He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.
Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph.
A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: ``We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails.''