Why doesn't the number of Iraqi casualties ever get reported?

Question

Doesn't it seem that the news only acknowledges how many Americans die in the Iraq War? They ignore the Iraqis, who are dying at a far greater rate as a result of this war. The number of American casualties is well-known to be about 3700 or so, which is more people than the amount of people killed by Osama bin Laden on 9/11 (the official number for 9/11 is 2974).

However, estimates of the number of dead Iraqis range well over 700,000. Why isn't this ever reported by the media?

For example, on Thursday the 27th of August this year, there were 2 Americans killed, but also at least 72 Iraqis (see http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=11494 ).

Could the media not be reporting the Iraqi casualty numbers because they don't want to expose just how awful the War in Iraq is so that the war can continue longer? Isn't the number of dead Iraqis just as newsworthy as the number of dead Americans? If that is the case, why isn't it being widely reported?

Answer 1

Well you answered your own question. They only have the estimates. Since we don't have lists of the Iraqi's we don't really know who's dead or who's alive.

Answer 2

No the number of Iraqi causalities is not as "news worthy" in the U.S. press then the number of American causalities are. Hardly a political stand by the American press which is hardly pro war or for continuing the current operations in Iraq. Two reasons for this are: the information is not always accurate on Iraqi casualties-in situations where it is they are usually reported. To say "why not say like this group does..." is a loaded question: Maybe a group running a site called the anitwar.com might have an agenda which could cause them to use inflated figures. The second reason is that the American press is primarily concerned about America causalities as are the American people. I would venture to say the Iraqi press is much more active in reporting Iraqi causalities, Israeli press talks about Israeli causalities more then they do Palestinian, and so on. Many of the Iraqi causalities have nothing to do with the American forces there and more to do with tribal, religion and family; these feuds will continue and probably worsen if the U.S. pulls out.

Answer 3

Reporters do not roam around in Iraq. It is far too dangerous. They are embedded with the troops, or holed up in hotel rooms with a few Iraqi helpers reporting what is happening, so they have been unable to report on these things.

However, International organizations connected to the U.N. have tried to tally the casualties of the war. They have estimated the death toll to be around a million, perhaps more. This does not include the even greater number of wounded.

This IS reported by the media, but it depends upon which paper you read and which channel you watch. You'll never hear it reported on Fox News, that's for sure. Networks like CNN and MSNBC have reported on this, also on the number of refugees. Read the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times.

It is estimated that two million Iraqi families have left their homes, are now on the borders of Iran or in Syria.

Certainly Iraqi lives are just as important as American lives, but it is almost impossible to tally up the numbers in the devastation in Iraq. It is reported that every family has lost one member or more to the war or had a family member injured. There are orphaned children with no orphanages, elderly with no one to care for them, and few doctors left to care for the wounded and sick.

Answer 4

The United States learned several lessons in Vietnam. When a conflagration is unpopular back home, reporting "body counts" of the so called "enemy" did not sit well back in the States. War is a terrible thing. The real causalities of war are women and children. This has been true thought the centuries.
Even though the media has almost unlimited access to the activities of the military in Iraq, they are still censored. When you have control and you exercise that control as you deem necessary, then a great deal of info never finds its' way to the media.
And, finally, the average American cares about the losses of US personnel, but could care less about the deaths of Iraqis, whether they be military or civilian.

Answer 5

no one knows how many dead iraqis there are, these are just estimates, many iraqi deaths are not reported, anyway, no one here (in the US) really cares about those numbers, because iraqis aren't your brother or son, or the kid down the street, or your best friend. Compared to other wars this number (700,000) is relatively small about 2.5% of the population of iraq, to put it in comparison, russia killed off 10% of the population of chechnya. This number is in the extreme end of the estimate, the number is probably closer to 200,000- with the actual reported number being 75,000.

In my opinion, the worst statistic of this war is the 500 billion dollars wasted so far, how many lives could have been saved using that money for other purposes?

Answer 6

First...I don't know what news you've been watching or reading, but I hear about Iraqi casualties all the time. The again, I have to work in San Francisco twice a week, so I may be a little over-exposed to this information.

Second, that number (700,000) is highly disputed and un verifiable. A more accurate and verifiable number is found on the following link....

Answer 7

The official count is just over 30,000 deaths, and that is the number collected from doctors and other personnel that deal with dead bodies.
The 600,000 was an estimation by going door to door and asking people if they knew someone who had died.
Obviously flawed reasoning, since it counts how many people knew a dead person, not how many actually died.
To put it in comparison, there were 16,000 people killed in the US each year for the last 10 years, and the same for the UK.

Answer 8

Well are any reporters going to do a daily round of the hospital morgues in Iraq, to get the names of all the dead Iraqis, and then translate all the names into English for the US readers and European readers of the newspapers?

I don't think so.

Were the names and numbers of dead civilians in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, Gulf War 1 etc etc reported?

I think just general estimates were given.

Answer 9

HOW can anyone say the media is not reporting the number of iraqi dead to make the iraq war not seem so bad.

90% of the news chanels are doing nothing but reporting on how bad the war is. their coverage is slanted to almost covering nothing but the bad stuff.

they dont mention it very much becuase most americans dont care about it as much as they do american deaths and they are there not to give news but to give news that sells. if they thought it would make thier ratings go up they would report on it.

Answer 10

I would say that the number of casualties is under reported in order to reduce criticism of the war. Also by minimizing the existence of Iraqis it is possible to treat them like abstractions rather than real bleeding suffering and dying human beings.
I also think that to bring up the Iraqi casualties some how diminishes the deaths of the martyrs of the US armed forces.