BAGHDAD — At least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to statistics from the Baghdad morgue, the Iraqi Health Ministry and other agencies — a toll 20,000 higher than previously acknowledged by the Bush administration.Not a perfect article -- it should have mentioned the Lancet study (pdf) and Les Robert's estimate of 100,000-300,000 deaths -- but it's a good start.
Many more Iraqis are believed to have been killed but not counted because of serious lapses in recording deaths in the chaotic first year after the invasion, when there was no functioning Iraqi government, and continued spotty reporting nationwide since.
The toll, which is mostly of civilians but probably also includes some security forces and insurgents, is daunting: Proportionately, it is equivalent to 570,000 Americans being killed nationwide in the last three years.
Send a letter to their editor, as I did:
Thank you for the article by Louise Roug and Doug Smith on the Iraqi death toll. For over three years the media has been virtually silent about the primary victims of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. These casualties cannot be diminished as "collateral damage," since there are no valid targets in an illegal war. I hope you will follow up with stories about these victims and how their communities have been impacted, in the same way such stories are told regarding much smaller-scale tragedies involving U.S. citizens (e.g., Sept. 11, 2001).UPDATE: The LA Times published my letter.
