From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 10:00:16 MDT
--- Michael Wiik <mwiik@messagenet.com> wrote:
> 3) 'There's no way to know how many Iraqi soldiers
> and civilians have
> died'. I hear this now every day on ABC news after
> they show their chart
> with coalition casualties.
>
> Well what about a census? There's no way to know...
> What happened to the bodies? There's no way to
> know...
> Surely there are military records for conscripts?
> There's no way to know.
Actually, I'd be willing to give them this. A census
assumes a pre-existing accurate census; given the
prior
government, whatever prior census there was, was more
likely to suit the needs or whims of Saddam than to be
accurate. The bodies could be buried beneath rubble,
blown to unrecognizable pieces, or simply buried by
their fellow villagers who won't talk about it (and
thus, who won't give accurate counts of their dead) to
anyone, coalition or Baath. And I didn't get the
impression that those who recruited the conscripts
were
into record keeping so much as just wielding a large
force; they might well not have noticed an occasional
deserter or several, except when they were looking for
such.
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