Counting the Iraqi dead - again

Eli Stephens, Left I on the News

The latest entry in the "how many Iraqis are dead" sweepstakes: Iraq's health minister said about 150,000 have been killed by insurgents since the war started, giving the government's first overall casualty estimate. Iraq's Health Minister Ali al-Shemari said about 150,000 Iraqis have been killed by insurgents since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.(...) Count the errors. First of all, "150,000 killed" is not a "casualty estimate," it's a "fatality estimate." Second, an estimate of the number of Iraqis killed by one source ("insurgents") can hardly be considered an "overall casualty estimate." Surely even the health minister wouldn't claim that no Iraqis have been killed by the Americans or by the Iraqi government forces, would he? Third, the all-inclusive, yet unexplained term "insurgents." Does that estimate include Iraqis killed by sectarian militias and death squads?...

continua / continued