Civilian casualties

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Peninsula readers' letters: Nov. 4



From Daily News Group readers
Posted: 11/04/2010 12:45:19 AM PDT
Updated: 11/04/2010 12:45:20 AM PDT






Civilian casualties

Dear Editor: Civilians have borne the brunt of modern warfare, with 10 civilians dying for every soldier in wars fought since the mid-20th century, compared with nine soldiers killed for every civilian in World War I, according to a 2001 study by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But it does seem to suggest numbers that are roughly in line with those compiled by several sources, including Iraq Body Count, an organization that tracked civilian deaths using press reports -- a method the Bush administration repeatedly derided as unreliable and producing inflated numbers. In all, the five-year archive lists more than 100,000 dead from 2004 to 2009, though some deaths are reported more than once, and some reports have inconsistent casualty figures.

Iraq Body Count, which did a preliminary analysis of the archive, estimated that it listed 15,000 deaths that had not been previously disclosed anywhere.

You just can't imagine people in this supposedly civilized age actually going to war. Their whole culture is to blame. A culture that says war is all right, that it's legitimate to tear bodies apart and destroy the lives of men, women and children. You just can't imagine civilized people talking calmly about it. War is insanity. They're declaring war in the name of peace.

Ted Rudow III,MA

Palo Alto