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Originally Posted by OnyxCougar
I'm no fan of Bush, but geez!! That's a hell of a statement....
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You're right... you caught me uttterly failing to articulate my thoughts, accompanied by being under-informed. So, I did some reading, and here's what I came up with:
Saddam was in power for about 8,000 days and change, and estimates indicate he and his security cheifs are responsible for
60,000-100,000 civilian deaths, plus
about 600 in the invasion of Kuwait. With the higher estimates, that makes it an average of about 12.6 killed per day (though not all of them Iraqi citizens). Ouch.
Bush, on the other hand, has been killing Iraqi civilians since March 19, 2003, which is about 546 days by my count. I see a wide range in estimates on this value, but
one site which keeps a tally of verifyable deaths puts the tally at 14,751 today, which is lower than most other estimates (such as 40,000), but it's more credible. That makes it about 27 per day, NOT counting the
3,000-3,400 civilian deaths in Afghanistan. That's more than double Saddam's rate. Yikes.
In all fairness, I'm sure one could find sample during Saddam's regime where he and his chiefs killed more on a daily basis, but the average daily death toll over time is clearly worse for Bush, and he's not done yet. Hopefully he'll stop soon, and make me completely wrong.
True, Saddam was responsible for more total deaths, but over a much longer period of time (and some of it with the help of the US, but I digress). The day-to-day death toll under Bush is more grim, and continuing.
In my research, I found
a description of an event similar to the one this thread is based on... how many other such events have occurred which we haven't heard about?
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At least 33 of the victims are reported to have died when US helicopter gunships strafed a residential neighbourhood in the city of Hilla on Tuesday. Aid agencies say they are increasingly worried about the mounting number of civilian victims of the war. The doctors at Saddam Hussein Hospital said many homes and schools, which were near military targets in the city, had been hit. They said they had treated more than 1000 injuries.
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Here's one final thing to reflect on when considering our military's concern (or lack thereof) for civilan deaths in Iraq:
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"Change the channel"
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops. [NYT 12th April 2004]
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