24 February 2007

Compare and contrast

This headline from a California TV station's web site, "Death toll rising in Baghdad car bomb attack" with this one from unbiased news source NewsMax "Baghdad Crackdown Sees Dramatic Drop in Death Toll". Both are dated 19 February.

The Associated Press have a story on a related topic: "Americans Underestimate Iraqi Death Toll". The AP have polled Americans and found that, while they can tell you with reasonable precision* how many US soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq, they woefully underestimate the price paid by the Iraqi population at large. The median estimate came in slightly below 10,000 whilst reliable figures have put the loss of life to be at least 50,000 with several estimates that are significantly higher.

*Addendum: most Americans estimate the US death toll at around 3,000 with the actual figure currently at a bit over 3,100 but both of these numbers fail to take into account the 800 civilian employees that have lost their lives performing tasks that in other wars would have been done by the Army. Speaking for myself, and I consider that I am reasonably au courant, would have put the contractor number much lower at perhaps 200 to 300. I think that is a number that will surprise most folks.

No comments: