Family Tragedy Shows Life Tough in Iraq

[CheshireCat]

I am sickened to be living in a country that has no respect for the life of Iraqi citizens. I was also struck by the number of Iraqi civilians that died in the month of June. The civilian casulty total paragraph is in bold print.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030725/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_faheema_s_tragedy_2

Family Tragedy Shows Life Tough in Iraq
Fri Jul 25, 3:23 AM ET

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAYJI, Iraq - In just a few seconds, an attack by U.S. forces killed Faheema Jassim Khalaf's mother and two sisters, tore apart her right leg below the knee and shattered her ankle. Khalaf is too weak to talk for long, but what she was able to whisper as she lay on the floor of her home's living room on a recent day painted a disturbing picture of how easily lives are lost in an Iraq (news - web sites) embroiled in conflict more than three months after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

<snip>

"The whole thing lasted seconds," said the father, who returned to Iraq in 1993 after living in Kuwait for 20 years. "There were no screams from the girls or my wife, just blood everywhere."

Khaled Suleiman, the Khalafs' neighbor for nearly 10 years, said U.S. soldiers surrounded the house and would not allow him to take the wounded to a hospital for at least 20 minutes. He recalled seeing four or five young Iraqis arrested by the soldiers and lined up against a wall.

<snip>


The Associated Press found in June that at least 3,240 civilians died in a month of fighting during the Iraq war, but it's impossible to say how many have died since.

[CheshireCat]

1. the numbers

"at least 3,240 civilians died in a month of fighting during the Iraq war"

Is this true? I didn't realize that the number was so high. Can anyone tell me the estimate of Iraqi civilians killed since the war started?

[UpInArms]

2. quoting Tommy Franks

"we don't do civilian body counts"

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Barrett808]

3. Iraq Body Count

This is the definitive site:

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

As of today, the range is:
Min: 6073 Max: 7782

Note that "Max" is not the highest possible, only the highest estimate from reports. The true numbers are undoubtedly much higher.

[CheshireCat]

4. Thanks for the site

I'm appalled at the number of civilians killed. And for what? Oil, money and power.

Disgusted

[Barrett808]

5. This is how I reply to the "It's done, just move on" argument

There's this little matter of thousands of innocents killed by our hand.

[PartyPooper]

6. Have you ever heard Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld

refer to Iraqi civilian casualties...even once? I haven't.

Yesterday, Rumsfeld (defending the release of the Hussein sons' photos) said, (paraphrased) "We hope this will prevent further U.S. and coalition casualties." Not one word about Iraqi civilians! Obviously, the Bu$h regime doesn't care about these folks!

And, yes, this is a deplorable and disgraceful situation. It seems we (DU'ers) have had to rely on the foreign press and DU to receive accurate reporting on this tragedy.

If the mainstream press in the U.S. had been doing their job by covering this all along...the "approval ratings" for this invasion would have been in the toilet from the get-go.