Reply #47: I can't reply to everybody and it's all pretty much the same

[elsur]

thread of logic so I'll just do a blanket reply and go from there.

It's a huge assumption to instantly brand me as a loyal Bush supporter that hates America. I was in Iraq in 1990 and 1991 and I've been back to Iraq several times (most recently three times this year) and have Iraqi friends on the ground over there who live with the consequences of the US forces and "freedom" fighters/terrorists on a daily basis. Your spin and/or opinion, or mine, matters not one whit to them as they can see what's happening with their own eyes. They are almost evenly split on the occupation by coalition forces but I don't think any of them hate the United States as much as some of you.

With the exception of small pockets in Iraq, Hussein was largely despised by your average Joe. To state that the US or Bush has killed more Iraqis than Hussein is asinine. The high end number of Iraqi civilian casualties is 100,000. Double that and double it again and you have 400,000. Although I think the number of true Iraqi civilian casualties is less than 100,000 I'll give you four times that for the sake of our discussion.

Hussein has the following to his credit:

- between 150,000 and 340,000 Iraqis
- between 450,000 and 730,000 Iranians
- estimated 1,000 Kuwaiti nationals
- No conclusive figures for the number of Iraqis killed during the Gulf War, with estimates varying from as few as 1,500 to as many as 200,000.
- Over 100,000 Kurds killed or "disappeared".
- No reliable figures for the number of Iraqi dissidents and Shi'ite Muslims killed during Hussein's reign, though estimates put the figure between 60,000 and 100,000. (Mass graves discovered following the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 suggest that the total combined figure for Kurds, Shi'ites and dissidents killed could be as high as 300,000). - - Approximately 500,000 Iraqi children dead because of international trade sanctions introduced following the Gulf War

Civilians are going to die in any war. It's always tragic. The collateral deaths attributed to war have gone down markedly with the advent of more accurate war technology but that doesn't help the guy who's daughter has just been maimed or killed.

As a final note, you people that advocate the death of US soldiers so that you can gloat over a policy failure are disgusting and spineless. When an sniper targeting coalition forces and hiding in a mosque is executed at point blank range you are full of rage and not without reason. With few exceptions I fail to note your ability to work up any rage over the execution of hostages by Zarqawi followers. At least try to be more consistent.