More Bad Headlines

Last time, I was partly joking. This time, I’m not.

‘25,000 Iraqis killed since US invasion’

…reads the Scotsman. And they’re not the only ones. Plenty of news sources have picked up this story, as a quick perusal of google news will show.

First, the title is misleading.

About 25,000 people have been killed and 42,000 injured in Iraq by coalition forces, insurgents and criminal gangs since the start of the war in March 2003, according to an independent study published yesterday.

Notice that’s the number killed since the US-led forces invaded, not the number killed by the US-led forces. In other words, that’s like a headline that says “200,000 Manhattan Residents Killed Since Police Have Protected City.”

But the Iraq Body Count group, which published the new study, claims that it has been able to come up with a figure by analysing media reports.

In other words, they’re guessing. And not surprisingly, who gets the share of this less than objective blame? Not the insurgents.

The group claims that the largest proportion of the death toll – 37 per cent, or about 9,250 people – was inflicted by coalition forces. It blamed a further 36 per cent – about 9,000 deaths – on criminal gangs, and just 9.5 per cent, or about 2,375 deaths, on the actions of insurgents.

“Unknown agents” were blamed for 11 per cent of deaths. The [British] Foreign Office said it found the insurgency figure implausible.

As do I.

Of course, the biggest scandal here is we never saw such prominent headlines revealing that 750,000 civilians died under Saddam’s rule, slaughtered with the most malicious, genocidal intent imaginable. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that liberation has a body count. And if you can’t wrap your head around that concept, you shouldn’t be thinking about politics at all.

A fellow blogger who gets it:
Liberals Off by Only 900%

…and plenty of those who don’t:
Lest we forget
That’s about 7.24 million dollars per corpse…
the boris
The Cost of Democracy????