July 4,
2008: Even though the Iraqi government
does not have the most accurate record keeping (which is understandable, given
the terror campaign there), it appears that about 70,000 civilians and 10,000
members of the security forces have died since early 2003. About 6,000 of
Saddams troops and security forces died during the 2003 invasion, and about
20,000 terrorists since then. Most of these were Sunni Arabs, either
pro-Saddam, or Sunni Arabs who simply wanted another Sunni Arab dictator in
charge. These included over a thousand
foreigners. There were also a few hundred Kurdish terrorists associated with al
Qaeda. Some of these were killed by Iranian troops.
Many more
members of the security forces deserted, and it's only in the last three years
that large numbers of Iraqi police and troops have stood and fought. The
desertion rate is still high (by U.S. standards), but it always was high, even
under Saddam (and earlier).
Thus about
four percent of the dead in Iraq have been foreigners, mostly American. About
two-thirds of the dead have been civilians, most of them killed by Sunni Arab
terrorists. However, nearly half the Iraqi dead have been Sunni Arabs, either
terrorists, Saddam's forces or civilians killed by Sunni and Shia terrorists.
Thus while the Sunni Arabs comprise only about 20 percent of the population
they have suffered three times as many dead (about one in a thousand) as the
Shia (about one in three thousand). While most of the civilian dead were Shia,
the Sunni Arab terrorists took much higher casualties.
All this,
except for the coalition losses, are estimates. There is only fragmentary data
on civilian and terrorist losses. But based on historical losses in similar
conflicts, good estimates can be made. Many partisan groups have issued bad
estimates, but that's part of the enemy Information War, something that also
has a long historical record.
