Health Minister Ali al-Shemari gave his new estimate of 150,000 to reporters during a visit to Vienna, Austria. He later told The Associated Press that he based the figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals - though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.
Hassan Salem, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, said the 150,000 figure included civilians, police and the bodies of people who were abducted, later found dead and collected at morgues run by the Health Ministry. SCIRI is Iraq's largest Shiite political organization and holds the largest number of seats in parliament.
In October, the British medical journal The Lancet published a controversial study contending nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war - a far higher death toll than other estimates. The study, which was dismissed by President Bush and other U.S. officials as not credible, was based on interviews of households and not a body count.
Al-Shemari disputed that figure Thursday.
"Since three and a half years, since the change of the Saddam regime, some people say we have 600,000 are killed. This is an exaggerated number. I think 150 is OK," he said.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061109/D8L9QNP81.html
2006-11-09 10:05:06 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
And how many of them were killed by other Iraqi's or insurgents?
2006-11-09 10:06:13 · update #1
the British media, the most left leaning media in existence, just wanted to hurt, well our entire effort there. It's amazing that this number did not come out until after the election.
2006-11-09 10:07:54 · answer #1 · answered by asmith1022_2006 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
It's because the 600,000 figure is based on polls. If you don't know, Arabs will sell anything and lie for anything. You can hire women to cry at your wedding and laugh at your jokes. You can hire people to protest and burn flags of any nation. Obviously the poll takers asked Sunnis how many relatives died and the Sunnis would give some figure like 10,000 and the poll takers just added up those numbers. To get 600,000, 200,000 people would have had to die a year which is about 548 a day! There just isn't that much fighting going on.
2006-11-09 10:47:51 · answer #2 · answered by gregory_dittman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i m glad saddam is now facing the death sentence. however i think they say a much lower death number because they at the end of the day wwant to justify what has happened they dont want to be put in the same catergory as saddam. i dont think anyone ever would. however if a lower number is said then no one would see reason for the troops to leave. I m australian but i think this war was the worst thing to happen to both countrys it never should of happened
2006-11-10 16:03:20 · answer #3 · answered by dilemma 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The 600,000 number is bogus. It was produced by the same people who did a similar study (also released just before a US election) that stated that 100,000 people were killed. Since no other researcher was able to duplicate the 100,000 number this counts as 'bad science.'
The 600,000 number is nothing but propaganda that people accept because it supports their political biases.
2006-11-09 10:30:10 · answer #4 · answered by MikeGolf 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That 655,000 figure was a printers error that was corrected the following day, it should have been 65,000. Anti-war zealots have simply refused to acknowledge the retraction and continue to repeat the error because it makes for better propaganda.
2006-11-09 12:44:30 · answer #5 · answered by rich k 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The 600,000 count is "causes by the war". The 150,000 count is "killed in the war".
That means the 600,000 count includes people who died from dirty drinking water, inadequate hospitals, lack of medicine, relocation, etc that could be losely connected to the war. And it is also probably a very inaccurate estimate.
2006-11-09 10:11:38 · answer #6 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
the question shouldn't be what do we do about the 60%, the question should be how do we get the other 40%. who is taking credit for our kills. lets not forget all the soldiers that the sorry f@ggots that killed the inocents in the world trade attack and all the soldiers these sons of b!thces have killed. i think that we are justified in our actions and to hell with anyone that stands in our way. if you dont like how things are being run fine, but dont f-cking critize the men and women who fight and die for your right to say this stupid sh!t. i love every one of my brothers and sisters that are here fighting with me on the front lines, people like you piss me off. why dont you come over here and fight for your country or shut the f-ck up!!!!!
2016-05-22 01:20:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
good questions, sorry I really don't know but lately the news doesn't report news, it report opinions, and seems like the media uses shock value or alarming reporting,
I find it unnecessary for the drama in the reporting don't you?
they need to cut the fat off the meat of the facts!!!!
2006-11-09 12:15:07 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You've basically hit on the answer.
Anyone who stood opposed to the current US-backed Iraqi govt doesn't count as far as being killed. So, its only 150,000 people if you only count the people loyal to the current Iraqi govt.
The 600,000+ number counts everyone who was a citizen or resident of Iraq, whether they approved of the US invasion or not.
2006-11-09 10:17:12 · answer #9 · answered by coragryph 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Saddam killed millions.
2006-11-09 10:07:23 · answer #10 · answered by Dick Richards 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋