Actually, try "hundreds of thousands" or even "over a million".

The polling company Opinion Research Business (ORB) has released detailed data confirming that the death toll from the Iraq war has exceeded 1 million people — more than the total number killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

The data is from a sample of 2400 face-to-face surveys throughout Iraq in which one in five people reported that at least one person from their household has been killed “as a result of the conflict”. When compared with the results of the 1997 census — the last complete census in Iraq — the survey indicates that 1.03 million people have been killed.
I hate it when even the supposedly anti-war left wingers in Teh USA cannot bring themselves to confront this horrific reality.

But of course the only casualty figure that matters is the number of dead US soldiers, right?

Posted at August 26, 2008 7:15 PM in response to Maliki's Pushback

If the Feds close this case, I'm betting Robert Mueller will resign the same day. And Bush will give him a pardon in January.

The White House pressure to connect these anthrax attacks with Iraq (see the other TPM thread) ties in nicely with the much-ignored attempt to frame Dr. Ayaad Assaad. A letter denouncing Assad as a terrorist was sent BEFORE the anthrax letters and he was questioned immediately after the anthrax attacks. Did somebody in the White House know about that letter?

The FBI quickly discounted this letter, even as the White House was pressuring them to name a Middle Eastern link to the case.

It was only after the case against Assaad fell over that Ashcroft and others (like Kristof) started fingering Hatfill, and only after that case fell over too that they went after Ivins.

The whole think stinks. It looks like someone at the Fort Detrick lab framed Assaad by sending the letter ahead of their premeditated anthrax attack, and it looks like somebody in the White House knew what was happening, and it looks like the people who did that are now being protected, which would explain why the whole FBI case looks so bumbling, incompetent and illogical.

When you compare this anthrax story with the 9-11 attacks, isn't it odd how this anthrax case has the same shady characters and groups on the sidelines, the same anti-Muslim motives apparent, the same lack of investigation from the corporate media on seemingly critical issues, the same bumbling incompetence from government investigators, the same high-level White House push for political capital...?

Very odd indeed. You would almost think the same people were involved, for the same reasons. The highly politicized 911 Commission cleaned up that other mess. But this time they have screwed it up a whole lot worse.

This was not a lone nutcase, this was a concerted effort by people within the US government:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24273

Posted at August 4, 2008 7:52 PM in response to DOJ Plans To Close Anthrax Probe As Questions, Critics Mount

The White House pressure ties in nicely with the attempt to frame Dr. Ayaad Assaad: a letter denouncing Assad as a terrorist was sent BEFORE the anthrax letters and he was questioned immediately after the anthrax attacks. Did somebody in the White House know about that letter?

The FBI quickly discounted this letter, even as the White House was pressuring them to name a Middle Eastern link to the case.

It was only after the case against Assaad fell over that Ashcroft and others (like Kristof) started fingering Hatfill, and only after that case fell over too that they went after Ivins.

The whole think stinks. It looks like someone at the Fort Detrick lab framed Assaad by sending the letter ahead of their premeditated anthrax attack, and it looks like somebody in the White House knew what was happening, and it looks like the people who did that are now being protected, which would explain why the whole FBI case looks so bumbling, incompetent and illogical.

When you compare this anthrax story with the 9-11 attacks, isn't it odd how this anthrax case has the same shady characters and groups on the sidelines, the same anti-Muslim motives apparent, the same lack of investigation from the corporate media on seemingly critical issues, the same bumbling incompetence from government investigators, the same high-level White House push for political capital...?

Very odd indeed. You would almost think the same people were involved, for the same reasons. The highly politicized 911 Commission cleaned up that other mess. But this time they have screwed it up a whole lot worse.

Posted at August 4, 2008 7:34 PM in response to Former FBI Agent Says White House Pressured Bureau To Blame Anthrax On Bin Laden, Al Qaeda

You Americans are very funny.

Even Josh Marshall and his mighty "progressive" crusaders against Teh GOP Evil are afraid of the word "Socialist".

Don't you realise that most countries in the world have major political parties which use this word "SOCIALIST" without blushing?

You have all been so conditioned over the past 50 years that even the well-meaning among you have no idea. You are afraid to break the taboos, no matter how ridiculous. You are trapped in the prisons of your own minds.

Wake up.

Please, for the world's sake. Wake up!

Posted at July 18, 2008 7:35 AM in response to McCain: Obama Is An Extremist, "I Don't Know" If He's A Socialist

What good is this story? Seriously - what do we do with the knowledge of these war crimes?

As a foreign (Australian) observer, it seems to me that Abu Ghraib - and indeed the entire Iraq War, and the whole bogus GWOT, and the insanely criminal Bush administration, and the US public's inability or lack of inclination to do much of anything about any of them - is symptomatic of a much broader social illness which the USA suffers today.

Even if those responsible never face justice, the story of all these horrors should be repeated over and over and over again, until everyone in the USA understands just what happened and why it was so wrong. Then you need to start dismantling your whole over-sized military industry, and giving your kids a better education, and cutting back on all the Hollywood violence these same kids are exposed to.

Germany and Japan today are peaceful, educated nations because their citizens learned from the mistakes of WWII (OK, the Japanese are still working a few issues out). They are also prosperous without relying on a war machine to generate jobs and profits. Take heed.

Posted at June 25, 2008 12:55 AM in response to Opening thoughts and questions

Somebody might wanna call all the editors of the papers who published these letters, or examine the letter-writers history of publication.

I know I can't get all my letters criticizing the Bush cabal's criminal antics published!

Posted at June 17, 2008 10:13 PM in response to Searching For The True Source Of A Bogus Story

The White House's "why didn't he resign" rebuttal of McClellan is pretty lame. It was widely known for some time that McClellan wanted out of the job. He stayed on until Josh Bolten arrived with a clean broom.

Posted at May 28, 2008 6:40 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Yeah, but Dana is hot so nobody cares.

That right there tells you a lot about the state of US society, doesn't it?

And isn't it ironic that an administration in permanent campaign mode ends us so totally despised? Oh, but they have successfully raped the US taxpayer for 8 long years, so what does it matter now.

They are all sociopaths, the whole lot of them, most especially Bush who "convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment" and has engaged in "self-deception" to justify his political ends.

Posted at May 28, 2008 4:02 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Petraeus's comment suggests that he knows some religious nutcases in the Bush administration who see the invasion of Iraq as part of an undeclared Christian Crusade, and in that sense some people ARE seeking "the Holy Grail in Iraq".

Google the words "Bush" and "Rapture" if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Posted at April 9, 2008 7:18 PM in response to Petraeus: "We're Not after The Holy Grail in Iraq"

So what about all that talk about blogs taking over from newspapers, etc? Lots of folks don't have a newspaper plonking on their breakfast table nowadays because they start their day with sites like TPM instead!

Of course I agree that the big newspapers and TV stations can have a much more profound affect, but it's been 5 years now and they still haven't even properly apologized for their roles in triggering this mess! So maybe it's a little idealistic to expect them to do something useful now.

Meanwhile, people keep on dying...

Posted at March 19, 2008 11:38 PM in response to Hundreds of flags .... 3,982 Americans dead