BAGHDAD -- 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 not counted because of serious lapses in recording deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning Iraqi government, and continued spotty reporting nationwide since. The toll, which is mostly of civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it is equivalent to 570,000 Americans being killed nationwide in the last three years.
Many more Iraqis are believed to have been killed but not counted because of serious lapses in recording deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning Iraqi government, and continued spotty reporting nationwide since.
The toll, which is mostly of civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it is equivalent to 570,000 Americans being killed nationwide in the last three years.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops have reduced the number of Iraqi civilians they kill after orders to improve checkpoint procedures following the shootings of some 350 Iraqis in such incidents last year, the military said on Sunday. Figures in a briefing document provided by a U.S. spokesman in Baghdad showed that seven Iraqi civilians a week on average were reported killed in "escalation of force" (EOF) incidents in 2005. That dropped to four a week in January to one a week now.
Figures in a briefing document provided by a U.S. spokesman in Baghdad showed that seven Iraqi civilians a week on average were reported killed in "escalation of force" (EOF) incidents in 2005. That dropped to four a week in January to one a week now.
MR. GREGORY: The reality is, though, that the news from General Casey that's being reported this morning about the fact that, that there could be withdrawals by September and then get significantly down by the end of '07, there's not a lot of distinction between the parties on the way forward. . . . It's not really that different, ultimately.
His attempt to enlarge the frame of his argument and isolate the fascist gene that makes the Kossacks and their ilk so dangerous to democracy and discourse is an embarrassing display of smarmy sophistry the likes of which I haven’t seen since Jonah Goldberg last tried to form a serious, non-Captain Kirk thought.