Churchill, Saddam, and the horses they rode in on

“Suicide Bombers Kill At Least 35 in Baghdad Area” proclaims a headline in The New York Times today (2/19/05).

By Brian Terrell

While the terrible toll of a growing insurgency on Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police is being reported with a daily tally in the media, the number of Iraqi civilian casualties of American and British military action and the occupation is not so easily available. Studies such as published by the British medical journal Lancet last October that suggest a civilian death toll of more than 100,000 are largely ignored by the media in the United States. American soldiers killed by Iraqis is news, of course, and it seems that Iraqis killed by other Iraqis is news as well. What is not deemed news is when Iraqis are killed by Americans, even when this is done on a massive scale.