what a month!

[paranoidandroid]

and with our first month of democracy under our belts...let's look at the scoreboard..... :(


In Baghdad, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a small group of Western reporters that next week's planned crackdown, dubbed Operation Lightning, was designed "to restore the initiative to the government." Insurgents have killed more than 620 people since his government was announced on April 28.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[markalot]

Insurgents have killed more than 620 people since his government was announced on April 28.


22 people a day on average die to insurgents in Iraq.

In 2003 there were 6,328,000 car accidents in the US. There were 2.9 million injuries and 42,643 people were killed in auto accidents.

So 116 people a day die in car accidents in the US.

In 2003 there were 16503 murders and non negligent manslaughters in the US. This equates to 45 deaths / day.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/03cius.htm

Statistics!

[jd1]

Okay, 600+ people dead in the last month. 22 a day.

The statistic I really want to know is this: During 1991-2003, how many people (on average) died every day in Iraq? There were (many, many) killings by the secret police, an ongoing insurgency with the northern Kurds, limited access to proper medical care due to Saddam's regime/US sanctions (pick your cause), etc. etc.

Is Iraq better off now? Or under Saddam? Until we put some numbers on just how bad Saddam really was, all this talk of people dying in the insurgency doesn't tell us very much. It could well be Iraq is actually better off now, with fewer people getting killed than before. It could just as easily be that things are worse, and more people are now dying. I have no idea what the reality of it is.

--JD

[markalot]

We are missing a bunch of Iraq stats. Deaths in accidents, murders (I'm sure they have a murder rate), suicides, etc. Also percentage of population is more important than raw numbers. More people in the US = more deaths.

[Orville Wrong]

and with our first month of democracy under our belts...let's look at the scoreboard..... :(
Good work, "insurgents!" Wiping out a battalion-strength contingent of schoolkids, marketgoers and policemen in one month is quite the accomplishment. Hearts and minds.

[markalot]

http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=4069

from an anti-war site, so numbers might be scewed.

The London Times reports that nearly 700 persons die under suspicious circumstances (most of them from bullet wounds) every month in Baghdad. These are not, at least mainly, victims of the guerrilla war. They are mostly victims of crime or revenge. I figure that as 8,400 murders a year in a city of 5 million, or 168 per 100,000 per annum. The highest murder rate in the U.S. for 2003 was 45.8 per 100,000, in Washington, D.C., with Detroit coming in second. That is, Baghdad is nearly four times as dangerous as the most dangerous American cities, more than a year and a half after the fall of Saddam. The U.S. has by its stupid mistakes deprived Baghdad's residents of the basic right to personal security. It is true that Saddam's secret police used to dump bodies at the morgue, of course. But all the polls show that Baghdadis feel themselves substantially worse off in personal security now, and no wonder.

Note that we have no prior to the war stats, and of course this asshat brushes off the fact that Saddam used to dump bodies at the morgue. He also seems to think polling in Baghdad means something. Of course the people in Baghdad loyal to Saddam were safer during his rule. duh

[chuxxter]

You know, not to seem callous or anything, but who cares? The only thing I care about is getting all of our boys back whole, and soon. And yes, this is bullshoot. Whether you approve of the war or not, Iraq is better off without Saddam.