Quote:
Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
I don't want facts to get in the way, but I just want to point out that....
The guy gassed the Kurds in 1988. (25 years before Iraqi Freedom)
The last war Iraq fought was in 1993. (22 years before Iraqi Freedom)
The last missiles fired into Israel was in 1993. (22 years before Iraqi Freedom)
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Did it ever occur to you that the reason for the 22 year gap was the large amount of UN troops already in the country enforcing no fly zones. Not to mention the massive amount of economic sanctions.
So the US was faced with a decision. Let Saddam gain full strength, remain in Iraq indefinitely enforcing no fly zones and economic sanctions, or invade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
Over the course of his reign (1979-2003), about 300,000 people are known/suspected to have been killed. That's half the number attributed to the Iraqi War by the Lancet Survery 2006 (650,000) and nowhere near the number of 1,000,000+ (look at all those zeros!) suggested by ORB in 2008. And that 100%-350% increase only took 5 years!
So now that the death toll has risen, the country has minimal infrastructure, and at least one generation of civilians is fervently anti-west, we're in a much better shape for regional and worldwide stability than if that madman Hussein had stayed in power.
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Where are you getting this number from? Over a million people died in the iraq/iran war alone. The number must include only summary executions and not combat deaths of which there were many. Kind of a skewed number since the American figure you are using most certainly does include combat deaths.
I'm not trying to justify the Iraq war as only time will tell, but if you're going to make a donkey hole comment like: "I don't want facts to get in the way, but I just want to point out that...." Please get the facts straight.
Edit: I also did a little more research and the Lancet survey and the ORB survey you cite are the two highest estimates....by an extremely large margin. The numbers came largely from surveys where they asked people to fill out the amount of people they knew who were dead and then extrapolated the numbers based on that . The only problem with that kind of method is that you
Other very reputable organizations like the Associated Press are claiming just over 100k dead since the invasion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualt...sociated_Press