So is Bush also laughing about the thousands of Iraqis who have died as well? Estimates vary but a reasonable starting point seems to be around 30,000 Iraqi deaths since the beginning of the US/UK invasion of Iraq. With the faux constitution that does not address any of the serious issues (once again put off for another day) there is no reason to think that the Iraqi deaths will decrease. The numbers are pretty bad:
- One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis...
- Iraq Body Count estimates roughly 1,000 Iraqis die each month
- Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution who has closely followed the war's casualties, said an average of 1,500 to 2,000 Iraqis have been killed each month
- While American troops are killed at the rate of about 60 to 70 per month, the new Iraqi military suffers that many deaths in a week, mainly from insurgent attacks that rose to about 90 per day in September, O'Hanlon said.
- Iraq has the highest crime rate in the region with around 10,000 homicides a year
"Most Iraqis remain less secure than they were under Saddam, less secure even than they were in the first year of the American occupation," said James Dobbins, a former Bush administration envoy to Afghanistan and veteran diplomat who now directs the Rand Corp.'s International Security and Defense Policy Center.
