Iraqi civilian death count exaggerated

I read some of the letters from those who seem to dislike the American way of electing national leaders and one of the most frequently cited “statistics” is 100,000 Iraqi civilian dead since the war began. I’ve done some checking in various locations on the Internet and it seems that the most likely and accurate number would be something between 14,000 and 17,000. That is still a terrible tragedy of the war but those on the left seem to fail to understand that credibility is dramatically reduced by tossing out the wilder and unsubstantiated numbers.

On another note, Sen. (elect) Ken Salazar of Colorado had about the best answer to the “war vote” question I’ve seen. When asked if he would have voted to give the president authority to use military force, his answer was “yes.” When asked if he would have voted the same way if we had known then what we know now, his reply was, “That’s a stupid question.” He explained that if we had known then what we know now, the vote issue would have probably never come up. That’s about the best answer I’ve heard on either side regarding the war vote issue.

William Gadberry

Everett