IRAQI GOVT. REFUSES TO RELEASE NUMBER OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

Just like the Bush regime, the Maliki government in Iraq refuses to release numbers of civilian casualties for the last few months. The BBC reports today that the United Nations Mission in Iraq complains that the Maliki regime is stonewalling on its number of civilian deaths and injuries for the last three months.

So both Bush and Maliki want to keep this information from the public. Bush publicly criticized the Lancet/John Hopkins numbers released last year that counted about 650,000 Iraqis killed since the Bush invasion in March 2003. I wrote on this subject on March 27, 2007, indicating that researchers compiled numbers based on scientifically acceptable principles. Now Maliki is saying that reports of Iraqi casualties are exaggerated, at the same time as his regime refuses to release its own figures.

Both Maliki and Bush are trying to keep the truth from the rest of the world that the Iraq War is going badly. Bush continues to say that we are better off with Saddam Hussein gone. How can he still maintain this position in light of almost one million Iraqi deaths? I doubt even Saddam Hussein killed as many people as has George Bush's war.