Great news from abroad
The single best coverage of the war in Iraq has come from free lance journalist Michael Yon. He was never shy about how bad things were going, and I think was the first person to state openly that Iraq was in a state of civil war. How does he feel now? Here’s what he told Glenn Reynolds:
“The war is over and we won.”
More at the link. Yon is off to Afghanistan where he says things are much more bleak at this time. Meanwhile, Rasmussen is reporting the highest level of optimism about the war on terror yet recorded in this country.
If President-Elect Obama is able to bring the troops home any time soon, it will be with a victory in their pocket and with George W. Bush to thank for it. However, it is unlikely he will use the word victory (he and the left can barely bring themselves to acknowledge the success of the surge, much less the war), and he will acknowledge W’s tenacity and determination when pigs fly.
PT, what’s the death toll on innocent civilians in Iraq?
We won!
What would a day be without some relativist nonsense from Matt. Yay!
According to Iraq Body Count, the death toll of innocent civilians stands around 88 to 97 thousand. The number has been steadily declining since the surge began. (Which is logical given that the vast majority of civilian deaths that have occurred in Iraq were at the hands of the al Qaeda and insurgents, not the U.S. or Iraqi national forces. But shhhh…don’t tell Matt. It would ruin his perfectly good fantasy that all those deaths are on us.)
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
The figure could be higher, IBC only counts verifiable deaths.
Than there is Saddam, who is estimated to have been responsible for well over a million deaths in his 24 years of rule, maybe as high as two million. At two million, that’s about 80,000 a year. A year!
Since Matt brought up casualties, let’s take the opportunity to look at the issue from a purely mathematical perspective. At even 60,000 a year, Saddam could have killed as many as 300,000 people over the last five years. That means that, even with the all of the civilian deaths in Iraq since the war began, it is reasonable to assume that over 200,000 people’s lives were saved.
Yes Matt, people have died in this war. To my knowledge deaths occur in all wars. No one thinks that is a great thing. But if Iraq is left with a government that is even moderately interested in protecting its citizens and those of surrounding countries, the overall savings of lives will be incalculable. That’s the big picture.
Of course, it doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker as nicely as “Bush lied, people died.” Sorry about that.
Celebrating an American and Iraqi victory in Iraq means celebrating an end to civilian casualties in any great numbers. I think that is a great thing. Isn’t it?
A gift to friends becomes ammunition for war… know ALL of the facts and give ALL of the facts.