Quote:
Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
The most reliable current figures from NGOs suggest that Saddam's Baathist regime killed about 300,000 Iraqis, not counting casualties of the Iran-Iraq war, Desert Storm, or Operation Whatever in 2003.
That comes to about 10,000 Iraqis per year.
While all agree that estimates are shaky, a consensus seems to be forming around a ceiling of a bit over 10,000 Iraqis killed (military & civilian) in Operation Whatever.
So, assuming the U.S. can stabilize Iraq and produce a more-or-less democracy. The Iraqi people as a whole will be net better off in less than two years. Whether or not many see it that way in the short term, they will in the long-term. So sorry about any humilation to the national pride suffered while we crushed a totalitarian dictator and his kleptocracy.
S_A_M
|
In the interests of accuracy, the bulk of those deaths would relate to the repression of the Shiites and Kurds in the early 90s, both before the first Iraq war and in the immediate aftermath.
In other words, on the watch of George the I. The annualizing of numbers doesn't quite work.
The question of whether the Iraqis individually will be better off will be answerable only in hindsight (note for the record I believe and hope they will be). If we leave Iraq a shambles with high unemployment, an untenable political system, and inadequate security, we set it up for a rather desparate future. If we leave Iraq with a stable economy and a sustainable system of government, they will be much better off.
I note that the process is farther along in Afghanistan, and it is clear that there is a lot of work to do there.
