In my opinion, those who ignore or cover up mass killings are just as guilty as the actual murderers.
The British Medical Journal Lancet made an effort to count the number of Iraqi civilians dying from the violence. To my knowledge, they were the only ones to maintain a consistent record.
When the number topped 600,000, a few people took notice of it for political purposes. The government took little notice of it until the Republicans lost votes on the Iraq War issue in 2006.
To their dismay, the government had nothing to dispute the Lancet figure. So, they paraded a stream of ‘experts’ to make media announcements contrary to Lancet.
Although the war protest has subsided, the government has funded at least two purely statistical surveys. They dropped the body count to 151,000 and the latest offers the estimate of 80,000.
Any statistician can arrive at any number his client wishes.
Here’s the rub.
The preemptive war waged by the Americans was illegal by any standard. It was a massive war crime a felony. Wrongful deaths occurring during a felony are murders in the first degree.
Anyone who took part in any phase of the war is a murderer deserving the death penalty.
Hanged for killing 80,000 or 1.3 millions, it really doesn’t matter.