9,028. That’s the number of Iraqi civilians killed this year in war, according to a new report by Iraq Body Count.
In case anyone thinks that’s “residual violence” or, worse still, “the irreducible minimum”, let me put it in perspective:
Even if, despite all the predictions to the contrary, civilian deaths remain at present level for the next three years, approximately 27,000 Iraqis will lose their lives before the last U.S. combat troops are out.
As IBC sums up:
Deaths are unchangeable facts of history whose number can only be cumulative. For as long as conflict related deadly violence persists in Iraq, more lives and more families will be added to its toll of victims. Thus, ‘fewer victims than in 2007′ is an abstraction imposed by a frame of measurement: the stark reality is that some 9,000 more Iraqi civilians have had their lives violently cut short since the end of 2007, most of them anonymously and with little public recognition.
