on Iraqi civilians killed by US forces

[G_j]

Balancing the Iraq Equation (April 22, 2005)

The death of Marla Ruzicka, campaigner for recognition of and compensation for civilian Iraqi victims of US military attacks, has cast a spotlight on the issue of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces. While the Pentagon does not officially keep track of civilian deaths, Ruzicka discovered that "standard operating procedure" requires US troops to file a report when a noncombatant is shot. But the US media, which avoids criticizing the Iraq war, did not mention the details of Ruzicka's work amid the many tributes to her.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2005/0422equation.htm

By Susan Wood
Inter Press Service
April 22, 2005

A humanitarian aid worker's death in Iraq last week is spurring calls for a public accounting of civilian casualties by the United States government and more attention to the issue by the U.S. media. Marla Ruzicka, 28, who fought to obtain recognition and compensation for Iraqis injured in U.S. military attacks, did not live to see all her goals accomplished.

But a week before a car bomb took her life and that of her Iraqi co-workers, Ruzicka wrote a toughly worded essay. In it, she contradicted senior Pentagon officials, stating that military commanders do keep track of Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces and that the number is important. Despite Gen. Tommy Franks' assertion in 2002 that U.S. soldiers ”don't do body counts” -- echoed more recently by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld -- it is ”standard operating procedure” to file a report when a noncombatant is shot, Ruzicka wrote, citing an unnamed brigadier general.

”The American public has a right to know how many Iraqis have lost their lives since the start of the war and as hostilities continue,” she wrote in her statement, published on the website of the organisation she founded, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. Amid the outpouring of sympathy over her death, Ruzicka's statement is certain to put wind in the sails of those who say either that the Pentagon is lying when it claims it doesn't track civilian casualties or that it can and must undertake such a task, both as a humanitarian imperative and in the interests of U.S. credibility.

Their numbers are growing. Among the latest to call for such statistics are 24 public health experts from six countries, including the United States and Britain, who last month castigated those two governments -- the chief partners in the 2003 invasion of Iraq -- for their ”irresponsible” failure to investigate Iraqi civilian casualties. Their statement, appearing online in the respected British Medical Journal, criticised the allies for relying on ”extremely limited” Iraqi Ministry of Health data while dismissing a peer-reviewed study in another British publication, The Lancet. It estimated that about 100,000 civilians had died, over half of them women and children.

..more..

[Karenina]

1. That 100K figure has been around for MONTHS

and is SUCH an insulting LOWBALL! Culture of life, indeed! :eyes:

[G_j]

3. indeed...

:eyes:

[OneBlueSky]

2. given that this is an undeclared and illegal war, wouldn't families . . .

of Iraqis killed by American forces have pretty good grounds for lawsuits agains the U.S. government? . . .

[shadowknows69]

4. yeah good luck with that.. n/t

[G_j]

5. one would think

... someday maybe, when this country recognizes standards of behavior spelled out in the Nuremberg Principles, the Geneva Conventions etc.
Until then, probably not a chance.