Saving Lives in Iraq

There are a lot of ways to tell a story with statistics. Pro or Con. Favorable or unfavorable. In a way the enlightens or that obscures the truth.

For months now, critics of the War in Iraq have thrown around statistics about how many civilian casualties are directly related to the American invasion to depose the murderous tyrant Sadaam Hussein and his thug regime.

How many? 100,000 thousand was the oft repeated, though unsubstantiated claim. 100,000 dead civilian Iraqi's caught in the crossfire.

Lately that number is being revised down by proponents who have challenged the wilder claims. How many? 30,000 appears to be the new number, used now by both more reasonable critics and by the Bush administration. That was the number used by President Bush even today.

30,000. Dead Iraqi civilians.

Is that possible? Certainly. It's a war, in case you didn't get the memo.

Is it unheard of? Not compared to most conflicts. Vietnam, according to a radio report I listened to today, produced 1 million or more civilian casualties. World Wars resulted in considerably more.

Is it to the shame of the U.S. that there have been 30,000 civilian dead?

No, it is not. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that our actions have saved lives in Iraq.

There are of course the thousands of Iraqis found in mass graves, killed at the hands of the Hussein regime. That's not a threat anymore.

There are, of course, the untold number of Iraqis killed directly by, or ordered killed by, Sadaam's thug sons - Uday and Qusay. Thugs who reportedly took after dinner strolls at night over to the prisons to select prisoners for execution purely for enjoyment. Those thugs are in the ground, and Iraqis are now safe from them.

More telling: take as my only case the U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq after the first Gulf War.

Sanctions that prohibited Iraq from selling oil. Sanctions that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children. (A case often shouted from the rooftops by Bush critics who claimed that the sanctions killed 500,000).

To alleviate the suffering, the U.S. and the U.N. modified the sanctions to allow Iraq to sell Oil - for - Food. Did it end the dying? Of course not. Sadaam promptly stole the money and used it to build many many palaces to his glory and to bribe French, German, and Russian diplomats to oppose any action against him in the U.N.

Children and adults died of starvation in Iraq under the U.N. sanctions, each and every year.

How many. Estimates that I heard were 5,000 per month. That's 60,000 / year dead. Every year for 12 years. That's 720,000 dead from the sanctions.

So, given 60,000 / year dying just from the sanctions - and Sadaam's refusal to comply with the requirements that would have lifted the sanctions, what were the options?

Bush opponents exclaim that the correct option for dealing with Iraq was to leave the sanctions in place. How many times did you hear Kerry, Dean, Clinton, and company argue that we shouldn't have invaded because "the sanctions were working".

60,000 dead per year is working? Were they willing to not invade and accept 60,000 dead in 2003, again in 2004, and again in 2005? They must have been, because none of them advocated withdrawing the sanctions and walking away.

On the other hand, President Bush rightly concluded that the sanctions were not working. And we couldn't just lift the sanctions and walk away. Not only would you still have mass graves filling up, the terror threat after 9/11 dictated that we take down a state sponsor of terror.

So. It costs 30,000 lives over 3 years to do the right thing. To invade Iraq and depose the regime.

That's deeply regrettable. But it doesn't tell the whole story.

The rest of the story is that by ending the sanctions and ending the regime, we likely saved lives. Yes, that's what I said - saved lives. What's the math?

Not invading - leaving the sanctions as the anti-war crowd advocated?

2003 - 60,000 dead
2004 - 60,000 dead
2005 - 60,000 dead

Total - 180,000 dead

War in Iraq

2003 - 28,000 dead
2004 - 1000 dead
2005 - 1000 dead

Total - 30,000 dead

That's the math of war. A regrettable war, but a just war.

Do the math. Tell the whole story.

That's my take on it.