American soldiers are true ubermensch and we could conquer the world!

[hohotread]

As I periodically do, I was checking various Iraq War casualty statistics against one another.  While doing so, I found two different sets of statistics that claimed over 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the war began.  There are a few significant reasons these stats are exaggerated, which you may read under the cut at the bottom

Comments

[valorian]

One thing you didn't figure into your calculations are Iraqi military losses to their own people. Most of the deaths are as a result of civil war - violent death doesn't necessarily mean killed by Americans. For example, a civilian killed by a car bomb would be a violent death that we didn't cause.

So comparing that to Mogadishu is a bit of a stretch.

Be that as it may, I agree with you that coming up with even ballpark statistics in this situation is an exercise in futility. When the media does so with its usual air of "expertise", it comes off as disingenuous to say the least.

[hohotread]

Exactly. But the implication of the polls, the news reports, and the anti-war websites is that America caused these deaths. My point is that if that were so, then America would be unbelievably powerful and have no reason to still be piddling around in Iraq at all.

To tell the truth, the ORB's own numbers that would result in Iraq having lost half it population is the best evidence of the inaccuracy of the estimate. In addition, their methodology--which I'm sure complies with the professional standards of the UK--is, like most statistics-gathering methods, a total crock.

Don't forget about the PLA

[anonymous]

The Chinese Military could crush the US Military on the ground. At sea and the air it would be another story. The Chinese Navy is at best only a green water navy. The PLA has around 3 million soldiers currently however it has an estimated 600 million men that could be conscripted and the USA population is only 300 million. The USA has 1.5 million soldier's currently. The USA AF would over power the Chinese Air force but the USA couldn't win in a ground war.