Death toll update as US leaves Iraq

Iraq Body Count has just published its latest update on the death toll since the invasion in 2003, to mark the withdrawal of US combat forces. This is the important bit:

The total number of violent civilian deaths recorded since the 2003 invasion has now exceeded 114,000.

Combining IBC civilian data with official Iraqi and US combatant death figures and data from the WikiLeaks-released Iraq War Logs, we estimate the documented death toll across all categories since March 2003 to be 162,000, of whom 79% were civilians.

The figures are grim, and 2011 was worse than 2010. The other figure that ought to be noted is this:

14,705 (13%) of all documented civilian deaths were reported as being directly caused by the US-led coalition.

Most of those were during the invasion itself and in the sieges of Fallujah in 2004.

As I have repeatedly said, the death toll in Iraq is bad enough not to require exaggeration, sometimes by a factor of 10. The British decision to take part in the invasion was a noble one, taken for the right reasons, even if the outcome has been difficult.

Photograph of US troops leaving Iraq: AP

Recent Posts on Eagle Eye

• "Assemblage of Sops"
• "I'm not going to do ANYTHING for you"
• When Brown feared that Blair wouldn't go ahead with Iraq
• What to do about Syria?
• "It’s almost as if New Labour didn’t happen"

• takeoman

  As an intelligent young man like you has no doubt studied the the US military analysis of the war, which clearly blames Rumsfeld and his fellow neo cons for the troop shortfalls, I can only assume that an over indulgence over the holiday period led you to post this ridiculous comment.

• JohnJustice

  No, I had an extremely abstemious Xmas as it happens. I only comment on sites such as this when I am clear-headed, which is more than you can say for some folk here.

  On your particular point I can only say that hindsight is a wonderful thing, particularly when the analysis is done after a change of administration.

• takeoman

  Criticism of Rumsfeld and chums troop levels and lack of a coherent plan to deal with the aftermath of war were expressed by military men before the invasion. The majority of analaysis was carried out before the change of administration, so once again your latest comment fails to impress.