Re: new John Pilger article: The Truths they never tell us
Michael Pugliese
>>Final point. Sanctions on Iraq are a massive crime against innocents.
However, the stats being bandied about which yeaterday I saw on the net
being a total of 1.5 million dead are a gross exaggeration. Serves them and
us no good to exaggerate. David Courtright from SANE/Freeze, who had a few
articles in Monthly Review in the 70's, in a recent article in The Nation
estimates 227,000 premature deaths. Michael Pugliese<<
For the life of me, I can't figure out who is saying what in this post from MP or who is serving what here. Nor can I figure out just which categories of deaths MP is referring to. 1.5 million total deaths since the start of the conflict sounds quite plausible. Stormin' 'Quartermaster' Norman Schwarzkopf told Congress at least 100,000 Iraqi combat dead (how many of those Iraqi Shia and Kurdish conscripts, btw?)--though he and Colin Powell insisted repeatedly they weren't too interested in keeping track as the turkey shoot went on. Agencies of the UN reported 560,000 civilians dead due to the war, the direct effects of the war, and the sanctions AS OF 1995 for crying out loud!
Charles Jannuzi