Re: [Marxism] UFPJ's selective body count

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Todd Chretien writes:

"However, one group is suspiciously absent from the legislative working
group's figures, namely, the number of Iraqi resistance fighters killed by
the American military and the puppet Iraqi army."

Actually, even Todd misses an estimated 30,000 dead Iraqis - members of the
Iraqi military who were killed in the initial invasion
(http://lefti.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_lefti_archive.html#113443691706302821).
And, since he omits the number, I'll just add that the number of resistance
fighters killed, while clearly unknown, has been estimated by the Washington
Post as 45-50,000.

This is a subject I've been writing about for quite some time; see, for
example, this post
(http://lefti.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_lefti_archive.html#113458845264813223)
entitled "Am I the only one who thinks members of the Iraqi military and
resistance fighters are human beings?", which notes the overwhelming
tendancy, even in progressive sources, to cite 30,000 as the number of
"Iraqis" killed (as opposed to the conservative count of civilians killed,
which is what it is).

I do think Todd is nit-picking a bit (a subject I know a lot about!) on
UfPJs numbers; the fact that they listed an old number of 28,000 instead of
33,000 sounds like a simple error coming from grabbing an old number from
somewhere, and calling the 100,000 Johns Hopkins figure an "estimate"
(albeit without properly calling attention, as Todd does, to the fact that
that estimate is almost a year and a half old) is certainly scientifically
accurate. The fact is, that no one knows, and no one in the U.S. government
(and many others, obviously) cares, exactly how many Iraqis have been
killed, NOR DOES IT MATTER. If ONE Iraqi was killed by the illegal invasion
and occupation of Iraq, that is one too many. What DOES matter, as Todd
wrote and as I have written, is to make sure people recognize that ALL Iraqi
deaths are equally tragic and inexcusable, from the soldiers who resisted
the initial invasion, to the resistance fighters who have been killed
resisting the occupation, to civilians and members of the puppet military as
well.

Todd's POLITICAL criticism of UfPJ is right on the money, needless to say.

Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com



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