Monday, May 03, 2004

Iraq numbers Sources for following the casualty count in Iraq. There are a couple very good sources on U.S. and allied casualties. Sources on Iraqi casualties are speculative and unclear by comparison. That's because the United States got out of what's been termed "the body-count business" (an allusion to the weekly totals provided during most of the Vietnam War) during the Gulf War. I guess that's because it was politically tricky to report the magnitude of the casualties we were inflicting. But enough of memory lane, and on to the casualty counts: Iraq Coalition Casualties: A very reliable and up-to-date summary of U.S. and allied casualties, backed up by press and military reports of killed and wounded. Includes a list of every U.S./allied soldier killed in action since the war started. GlobalSecurity.org gives a slightly different count. Its totals vary slightly from those on the previous site. Maybe the best feature of the list is the longish explanatory essay, with some historical perspective, on the numbers and how they're derived. Iraq Body Count: An explicitly antiwar site that attempts to do what the governments involved will not do and what the media cannot do (or haven't gotten around to doing): tally civilian deaths in Iraq since the beginning of the war (the current estimated range is 9,018 to 10,873). 11:21:12 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Brekke.