We have scrupulous detail on exactly how many Americans died in each of the Iraq Wars. I won't repeat the figures here.
The information about the Iraqi deaths in these wars has been steadfastly ignored by the Bush Administration.
This study from the Project for Defense alternatives, makes a credible attempt to shed some light on the issue. It reports that in the most recent Iraq war that its best estimate (to +- 15-17.5% in each category) is as follows:
Total Iraqi fatalities: 12,950 +
- 2,150
Iraqi non-combat fatalities: 3,750 +- 550
Iraqi combatant fatalities: 9,200 +- 1,600
The combate deaths are broken down as follows:
Deaths in close combat (direct fire weapons, short-range indirect fire,
and close air support)(88) 2,140 - 7,300
Fatalities due to longer-range artillery 1,500 - 3,000
Fatalities due to air interdiction of ground troops 1,730 - 2,250
Fatalities due to air attack on strategic and related targets 250 - 500
A majority of the non-combatant deaths are believed to be in Baghdad (between 1,990 and 2,357) according to this source.
An alternate source of non-combatant deaths Bodycount.org for a comparable time period estimates civilian deaths at 5,450 - 7,100, with a mid-point of about 6,275, using a different methodology.
Again, the inter-relation among these components does not allow all the components to register simultaneously at their maximum values or at their minimum values. Notably, low numbers for close combat deaths tend to be associated with high numbers for fatalities due to artillery and air interdiction.(89) The fatality sub-estimates can generate final totals that range from slightly below 7,600 to slightly above 11,000, although the extremes represent unlikely cases.
The same study estimates that "the price imposed on the Iraqi people by the process of defunding and undermining Iraqi power was very substantial: more than 170,000 died."
With regard to the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the study finds that "we accept the view that more than 3,500 Iraqi civilians and probably more than 20,000 Iraqi military personnel were killed. (More specifically, we estimate that there were between 20,000 and 26,000 Iraqi military fatalities in the first Gulf War."
It notes for comparison purposes that:
Among the wars with casualty rates comparable to the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars are:
- Suez War: 3,000 military; 1,000 civilian;
- Sino-Indian War: 1,000 military; 1,000 civilian;
- India-Pakistan: 6,000 military; as many as 12,000 civilian;
- Arab-Israeli war: 19,600 military; less than 1,000 civilian;
- India-Pakistan: 11,000 military;
- Arab-Israeli war: 16,401 military; less than 1,000 civilian;
- Cambodia-Vietnamese war: 10,000 military; 14,000 civilian;
- Falklands Island War: 1,200 military;
- Israeli Invasion of Lebanon: 17,000 total;
- Sino-Vietnamese War: 20-30,000 military;
- India-Pakistan Kargil War: 1,200 military;