Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Do you know how many deaths are attributable to Hussein since he has been in power and do you know how many people in Iraq have died since the war started?
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The former number is quite big, because Hussein has been in power a while, and because he is responsible for the genocide of the Kurds and invading Iran somewhat earlier in his reign, as well as the invasion of Kuwait. In recent years, he wasn't doing nearly as much bad work.
As for the number of how many had died, we posted a while back about the only reputable academic survey of deaths attributable to the invasion. Using conventional statistical techniques, that study produced a range between something like 0 and 194,000, which the probably result somewhere in the middle -- 100,000 is not a bad shorthand. (This figure is now a year or so old, so you have to account for that as well.)
Oddly, conservatives who were all too willing to blame Hussein (rightly) for diverting Oil-for-Food money away from medicine for children, etc., do not want to consider that the various disruptions, etc., of the way might have bad indirect effects.
