Are more Iraqis today thanks to Bush?

Update: See video below

Here’s something interesting.

The Iraqi Government has finally tallied how many people died since the invasion/liberation. It turns out that the number is far, far less than the discredited Lancet study (surprise surprise!).

The Iraqi government reported today that 85,000 Iraqis were killed between 2004 and 2008. This was the government’s first official tally released since the war began in 2003.

Here’s the graphic.

So the “Iraq Body Count” website is in the ballpark, but missed quite a few – not surprising.

But what’s more interesting, is the idea that this might actually be a reduction on what would otherwise have happened.

Compare this to Saddam Hussein’s reign. From July 16, 1979 to April 9, 2003 and focusing on just six war crime events listed by US War Crimes Ambassador David J. Scheffer, there were an estimated 865,000 Iraqi deaths over 285 months – a rate of 3,035.1 deaths per month.

And compare to the Bill Clinton-era embargo that followed: From Aug 6, 1990 to Aug 6, 1999 the United Nations estimated one million Iraqi civilians died over 108 months as a result of the sanctions – a rate of 9,259.3 deaths per month.

Thus, Saddam Hussein’s death rate was 2.33 times greater than Bush’s. Clinton’s death rate was 7.1 times greater than Bush’s.

So if Bush’s invasion had not ended both Saddam’s rule and the embargo, we can estimate that from the period of 1 January 2004 to 31 August 2009, a total of 206,387 + 629,632 = 836,019 Iraqis would have died.

Taken against the actual figure of just 88,739 deaths during that period, we can determine that 747,280 fewer Iraqi lives have been lost due to ‘Bush’s war of aggression’.

Who’d have thunk it?

Don’t expect to see these numbers on any left-wing sites of course. That might make GWB look good, and we can’t have that.

Update: This video helps put some context.

Remember, the choice was to continue the sanctions, or go to war. Clinton chose sanctions, Bush chose war.

I’m with Bush on this one. He made the right call.