> In the left and MSM commentary on this the raw #'ers are emphasized
> and not any breakdown, even roughly, of US and UK vs. insurgent and
> militia death toll responsibility. saying the USG has, as it has,
> lifted the lid allowing long festering political and ethno-religious
> conflicts to come to the surface, and has the ultimate responsibility
> doesn't absolve car bombers and Shia and Sunni death squads, whether
> under the control of the Interior Ministry and various sectarian
> parties like SCIRI and Da'wa from the more immediate culpability.
I note that MSM seems to be the right-wing equivalent of 'corporate media', but anyway the raw numbers in themselves tell you about overall responsibility as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Breaking it down is important, if only to understand the nature of the carnage, and there is in fact a breakdown in the stats. Of those deaths attributable, the coalition are responsible for the bulk. That's 31% coalition, 24% 'other' (death squad, insurgent, civil war) and the rest 'unknown'. The coalition also shares a blame in death squad activity given its declared policy and given its declared responsibility for the activities of the Special Police Commandos, the most active death squad in Iraq (exposed by the late Yasser Salihee of Knight Ridder), and it also bears direct responsibility for promoting sectarian political parties, elevating their military auxiliaries into their state (under the direction of Steve Casteels, a man who knows his right-wing death squads from his days in Colombia) and advocating a sectarian 'federalist' polity for The New Iraq.
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