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Rhinocrisy
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12 October, 2006
More foreign usurpation of American jobs
It appears that Saddam Hussein's attempt to steal the jobs of hard-working Americans went further than burying people alive.
Indiscriminate aerial bombardment
Chemical warfare
Disappearances
Routine rape in prison
Improper disposal of remains
Now I know this is a bit sophistic -- you could go back into the history of any country and find a lot of horror, and I'm not sure that Teddy Roosevelt or George W. Bush are really worse than Saddam Hussein. What I'm trying to show is that the Iraqi leader's problem may have been a failure to think as big as the Americans.
This is true even when it comes to deaths. In 22 years running Iraq, the most exaggerated estimate of the murders he oversaw is 1 million. By all accounts I've seen, private-sector murders were pretty much nonexistent during that period. In the three and a half years that the U.S. has nominally run the joint, we're up to between 300,000 and 900,000!
Which just goes to show: If you want quality, you should stick to the brand you can trust.
"The Iraqi forces pounded our village in April 1987, forcing us to hide in nearby mountains which were later surrounded by the Iraqi army," said the woman, the 14th complainer in the Anfal case.The guy was a trooper among despots, but he really shouldn't have tried to challenge the masters.
"In the detention camp of Debis in Kirkuk, several masked soldiers sprayed us with unknown substance, which caused spreading diseases like whooping cough among children, and many of them died of the diseases later," she said.
"Six months later we were released by the Iraqi army, only to find all family members disappeared for good," she added.
A second witness who spoke anonymously told the court that rape was frequent in detention camps and many detainees died during their captivity, their bodies were eaten by dogs.
Indiscriminate aerial bombardment
Chemical warfare
Disappearances
Routine rape in prison
Improper disposal of remains
Now I know this is a bit sophistic -- you could go back into the history of any country and find a lot of horror, and I'm not sure that Teddy Roosevelt or George W. Bush are really worse than Saddam Hussein. What I'm trying to show is that the Iraqi leader's problem may have been a failure to think as big as the Americans.
This is true even when it comes to deaths. In 22 years running Iraq, the most exaggerated estimate of the murders he oversaw is 1 million. By all accounts I've seen, private-sector murders were pretty much nonexistent during that period. In the three and a half years that the U.S. has nominally run the joint, we're up to between 300,000 and 900,000!
Which just goes to show: If you want quality, you should stick to the brand you can trust.
Comments
remember the good old days, when he and we worked together to kill a million by starvation? and why doesn't that exaggerated estimate include the shia and kurd uprisings in 1991? those two put somebody's numbers up another 100,000 maybe.
the beeb report doesn't explain why people are wrong to compare iraqbodycount.org numbers with johns hopkins et al numbers. IBQ is set up as "an irrefutable baseline of certain and undeniable deaths," not a total.
this is the clearest single project declaration i could find on the IBQ:
"Does your count include deaths from indirect causes?"
Each side can readily claim that indirectly-caused deaths are the "fault" of the other side or, where long-term illnesses and genetic disorders are concerned, "due to other causes." Our methodology requires that specific deaths attributed to US-led military actions are carried in at least two reports from our approved sources. This includes deaths resulting from the destruction of water treatment plants or any other lethal effects on the civilian population. The test for us remains whether the bullet (or equivalent) is attributed to a piece of weaponry where the trigger was pulled by a US or allied finger, or is due to "collateral damage" by either side (with the burden of responsibility falling squarely on the shoulders of those who initiate war without UN Security Council authorization). We agree that deaths from any deliberate source are an equal outrage, but in this project we want to only record those deaths to which we can unambiguously hold our own leaders to account. In short, we record all civilians deaths attributed to our military intervention in Iraq.
Posted by hibiscus
the beeb report doesn't explain why people are wrong to compare iraqbodycount.org numbers with johns hopkins et al numbers. IBQ is set up as "an irrefutable baseline of certain and undeniable deaths," not a total.
this is the clearest single project declaration i could find on the IBQ:
"Does your count include deaths from indirect causes?"
Each side can readily claim that indirectly-caused deaths are the "fault" of the other side or, where long-term illnesses and genetic disorders are concerned, "due to other causes." Our methodology requires that specific deaths attributed to US-led military actions are carried in at least two reports from our approved sources. This includes deaths resulting from the destruction of water treatment plants or any other lethal effects on the civilian population. The test for us remains whether the bullet (or equivalent) is attributed to a piece of weaponry where the trigger was pulled by a US or allied finger, or is due to "collateral damage" by either side (with the burden of responsibility falling squarely on the shoulders of those who initiate war without UN Security Council authorization). We agree that deaths from any deliberate source are an equal outrage, but in this project we want to only record those deaths to which we can unambiguously hold our own leaders to account. In short, we record all civilians deaths attributed to our military intervention in Iraq.
Posted by hibiscus
