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The Horror of Iraq in Everyday Numbers
http://tinyurl.com/j8tfs73March 19/20, 2014 marks the 11th anniversary of the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Many of the statistics that have come out of the country over the past 11 years are simply incomprehensible in scope and meaning (particularly to people living in the relative safety of the US or Europe). So, I tried to take 11 of these stats/numbers and place them within an everyday (predominantly US) context. The result, I think, is a betteroften horrificunderstanding of what these numbers mean in human terms.
(I am aware that some of these numbers are in perpetual dispute, but I have attempted to use reliable sources. I have also rounded them off, and in some cases indicated a range. Links provided are occasionally only one or two of several checked.)
1.Iraq civilian deaths: 130,000. This many bodies would fill every seat of the home stadium of the National Football Leagues Pittsburgh Steelers. Twice.
2.Iraq combat dead (troops & insurgents): estimates vary between 30,000-50,000. If we take the number to be 50,000, that would equal killing every student enrolled at the University of Florida.
3.Coalition combat dead: 4,800 (4,480 from US). If you combined every single person who has ever been awarded a Nobel Prize (in any category) with every single person who has ever been awarded an Oscar (in any category), you would still be over 1,000 people short of the number of coalition troops killed in Iraq.
4.Direct War Deaths (all people who died as a direct result of the armed conflict): 185,000-190,000. It would take 32 consecutive sell-outs of New Yorks Radio City Music Hall to reach to reach 190,000 people.
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The Horror of Iraq in Everyday Numbers (Original Post)
swag
Mar 2016
OP
I think the civilian deaths are under estimated, don't forget all se who died when the
hollysmom
Mar 2016
#1
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)1. I think the civilian deaths are under estimated, don't forget all se who died when the
shock and awe bombed out their electricity and people died in hospitals and in homes without power for their breathing or even to keep insulin refrigerated. All those in hospitals we bombed, military or not, there were not in any shape to be counted as combatants. I think it would be closer to a million by now. How many weddings did we bomb? how many people were killed as collateral damage.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)2. 1Million Dead
That's the actual numbers.