American Views Abroad

 
Humanitarian worker Maria Ruzicka who was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq this week uncovered the fact that the U.S. military does keep records of Iraqi civilians killed by U.S. forces according to a report in the British newspaper The Independent. This stands in stark contrast to the oft-reported quote that the US army 'don't do body counts.' The article reveals she obtained figures of those civilians killed in firefights involving US forces and insurgents in Baghdad between 28 February and 5 April. The number dead were 29 which was four times the number of Iraqi police killed. The Independent article also reports:

'A peer-reviewed report published last year in The Lancet and based on an extrapolation of data suggested that 100,000 civilians may have been killed during the invasion and its aftermath. One of the report's author, Dr. Richard Garfield, professor of nursing at Columbia University, said: 'Of course they keep records and of course they pretend they don't. Why is it important to keep the numbers of those killed? Well, why was it important to record the names of those people killed in the World Trade Center? It would have been inconceivable not to. These people have lives of value. We are still fighting to record the Armenian genocide. Until people have names and are counted they don't exist in a policy sense.'

Further, the article states:

'In her report, she wrote from Iraq: 'In my dealings with the US military officials here, they have shown regret and remorse for the deaths and injuries of civilians. Systematically recording and publicly releasing civilian casualty numbers would assist in helping the victims who survive to piece their lives back together.'

The article can be read at:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=631173.
- posted by Gloria @ 11:41 AM