Parsing the Dead
Officials from Iraq's Health, Defense and Interior ministries on Monday said 16,273 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers died from violence in 2006. The number is higher than tabulations by the Associated Press, which put the figure at 13,738, while the U.N. has estimated casualties in the neighborhood of 36,000. Whichever number is most accurate, too many people have been killed in this war.Officials from Iraq’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries on Monday said 16,273 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers died from violence in 2006. The number is higher than tabulations by the Associated Press, which put the figure at 13,738, while the U.N. has estimated casualties in the neighborhood of 36,000. Whichever number is most accurate, too many people have been killed in this war.
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...AP via Yahoo!:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – As enraged crowds protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein across Iraq’s Sunni heartland Monday, government officials reported that 16,273 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police died violent deaths in 2006, a figure larger than an independent Associated Press count for the year by more than 2,500.
The tabulation by the Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior, showed that 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police and 627 soldiers were killed in the violence that raged in the country last year.
The Associated Press accounting, gleaned from daily news reports from Baghdad, arrived at a total of 13,738 deaths. The United Nations has said as many as 100 Iraqis die violently each day, which translates into 36,500 deaths annually.
In Samarra, a mob broke the locks off a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the dictator.
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Though the dark futility and carnage of our current wars are rarely publicly acknowledged, we should at least be able to confront the suicidal idiocy of World War I.
Officials expect the number of people killed and injured in Saturday's 7.9 magnitude earthquake to rise well above 2,500 and 5,000 respectively.
An annual U.N. report states that last year, more than 2,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 17,000 injured at the hands of Israel.
Gen. John Allen, commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, spoke Wednesday at the Pentagon, four stars on each shoulder, his chest bedecked with medals.
Editors at The Guardian's Data Blog have assembled an interactive report that maps the number of U.S. military members killed and wounded in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. (more)
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