i hope people pay attention to this

[danschank]

hopefully by now you've all read that johns hopkins bloomberg school of health is reporting an estimated 655,000 civilian deaths to date, as a result of the american invasion of iraq. if you haven't, click the link above. i found an article pertaining to this tucked away in the international section of today's NYtimes online. now, obviously all

Comments

i should have said "in the states" it's had footnote status

[danschank]

yeah, i'm not posting this because i necessarily think those #'s are 100% accurate, but, as you said, that's one hell of a leap from what's been generally reported. iraq body count has it listed significantly lower. it's particularly alarming following the non-stop news of violence going on over there very recently (at least 2500 dead for each of the past three months, according to less controversial statistics

the sad truth is

[dellaluna]

unless fatalities - no matter how large the number - involve white english speaking people, most Americans don't seem to notice.

it's official, i am once again a blogger who rants about bush

[danschank]

yeah, i know, unfortunately... but if we can't appeal to people's compassion, can't we at least consider their logic? i mean, saddam hussein is on trial as a war criminal for the gassing of 50,000 kurds during his war with iran... i mean, let's look at the fucking math!

(also, there's the whole issue of neo-cons selling this war as being fleshed out through precision technology that would minimalize this sort of thing... little did they know that an inevitable guerilla war wouldn't be quite so tidy).

Re: it's official, i am once again a blogger who rants about bush

[dellaluna]

Anyone who was stupid enough to believe some bullshit like "precision technology will minimize casualties" is an idiot and nothing will effect their thinking. War is ugly and horrific, no matter how you dress it up. If people are stupid enough to think it's anything but that, I'm afraid they won't listen to reason and these numbers will mean nothing to them.

Re: it's official, i am once again a blogger who rants about bush

[danschank]

agreed.

[dystempted]

I hear things are gonna be a-changin'. In what capacity or how, I do not know, I couldn't listen to Bush's speech yesterday because I was writing an essay, but I caught a few snippets from the muted scrolling text.

That, and a political analyst just said "all indications point to the course in Iraq changing." However, he did not say for the better.

[danschank]

the problem is that the damage is done on so many levels that even a full retreat on our part has the potential to be completely callous and destructive, in terms of human life. i'm at a point where i'm so disgusted with the whole affair that the idea of pulling out of the region altogether seems as terrifying as "staying the course," as bush would say.

ugh. i need to read more about this, and learn what's the best way to express my dissent, etc.

this is what happens when I fall asleep during the news

[chocolatebark]

Bush was on TV last night saying he doesn't consider it a credible study. When asked what he considered credible, he said 'What God whispers in my ear' and then grew wings and flew away.

Re: this is what happens when I fall asleep during the news

[danschank]

as returning said above, the truly frightening thing is that the margin of error between bush's last numbers (30,000... about five months back or so) and those of johns hopkins (which, as we all know, is a bastion of reactionary terrorist commies who hate america) is fucking 615,000 people!

and yes, the freedom loving "silent majority" of iraqis do fly away from all of this terror on magical winged unicorns, with god at their side...

[myglock_yrface]

Thanks for being my newslink, Dan.

[danschank]

thanks for tuning into the ALL DEPRESSING ALL THE TIME show.