Dr. June Snow, President, and founding member, of Medact, is a committed globalist ... "not that there's anything wrong with that", but it would understandably be expected to influence a distinctly anti-US stance, with a corresponding impact on objectivity. I note too that while the "55,000" figure blazes from headlines, the actual
report states its findings are "tentative", and says
Quote: ... The impact of war on health is usually assessed primarily in terms of its most direct and visible effects - death and injury through conflict. Between 7,800 and 9,600 Iraqi civilians are estimated to have died in this way, and 394 Coalition combatants. Estimates of the number of Iraqi military deaths range from 13,500 - 45,000. In the absence of official body counts, the final toll will probably never be known.
There's that Body Count thing again. I note too that the "ongoing health crisis" so shockingly disclosed by the report, its primary focus, is pretty much the "ongoing health crisis" Oxfam, The UN, and other NGOs have been publicizing for over a decade and apparently proceeds from an assumption that Coalition efforts have had no ammeliorative effect, an assumption challenged by substantial reportage to the contrary.
In the interest of balance, here's a differently biased piece, with some "harder" numbers:
Quote:
THE WESTERN FRONT
Fighting Back
In Iraq, the good news is the bad news is dead.
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, November 11, 2003 12:01 a.m.
Just about every media organization seems to have gotten the message that it should report the good news along with the bad in Iraq. So along with every report of an American soldier killed, we can now expect the obligatory quote from an administration official pointing out that there are plenty of positive developments in Iraq. Yet one positive story that gets little media attention and consequently leaves many Americans wondering how well the war is going is what happens after American soldiers are attacked. Why aren't retaliatory strikes reported more prominently?
Virtually every attack on American soldiers has drawn a response from coalition forces. The world is seeing that now--after the downing of three American helicopters, including a Black Hawk--with the strikes by F-16s with precision guided 500-pound bombs. Iraq hasn't been the scene of such massive American firepower since April. The enemy is being made to pay a hefty price for each and every attack.
These spectacular strikes are but a small piece in the larger war raging in Iraq. That missile attack launched on the al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying there was widely reported. He was unharmed, but the attack killed an American officer, scarred the outside of the building (which has made a good TV visual whenever the story is repeated), and scared many reporters who breathlessly reported how lawless the city must be if such an attack was possible.
But the military followed up by catching 18 suspects. Once in custody, the thugs were quick to rat out their friends. Those arrests led to the arrest of two dozen more enemy fighters.
This was no isolated success. Coalition forces are routinely catching the men who are planning and carrying out attacks on soldiers and civilian infrastructure:
The 101st Airborne nabbed seven individuals suspected of perpetrating attacks on American troops on Nov. 7 by conducting a series of nighttime cordon and "knocks" (entering homes). The suspects also allegedly harbored weapons caches.
The 82nd Airborne detained five anticoalition fighters--one a former Republican Guard lieutenant colonel--on Nov. 6. The five men are regime loyalists and were sought out by U.S. forces because they're believed to have planned and carried out attacks.
On Nov. 6 coalition forces were monitoring the site of a seized weapons cache when they spotted two men looking for the rocket-propelled grenade launcher and other munitions. When the men spotted the soldiers, they ran. They were ordered to halt, but one--who was carrying an AK-47--opened fire instead. The soldiers shot back, killing him and catching three others.
The 12th Infantry Regiment was attacked with 10 rockets on Nov. 7. Soldiers spotted where the rockets were coming from and returned fire. A patrol simultaneously closed in on the enemy's position. The attackers attempted to flee as the soldiers approached, but all three were shot down and killed as they ran.
The 82nd Airborne carried out the first phase of Operation All American Tiger on Nov. 6, detaining three members of an anticoalition cell in Husaybah and several others. The men caught are suspected not only of carrying out attacks but also of providing safe houses, weapons, transportation and funding to militants.
On Nov. 7 one division carried out 168 patrols--eight of them jointly with Iraqi border guards and policemen--as well as two raids and three cordon searches. The operations yielded 39 detainees, including several individuals known to be involved in attacks on coalition forces.
A man believed to be a former bodyguard of Saddam Hussein was captured in an early-morning raid on Nov. 8 south of Kirkuk. Coalition forces went after him after learning of his possible involvement in attacks.
On Nov. 7, acting on the tip from a local sheik, members of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment seized a large weapons cache 20 miles northeast of Fallujah. The following day they returned to the same site and found another large stockpile of weaponry, including 194 152mm artillery shells, 84 antitank missiles, 45 high-explosive and fragmentation rockets, 34 155mm artillery shells, four 57mm rounds, five 115mm rounds and one 125mm antitank round as well as thousands of rounds of small arms ammunition.
The death of an American soldier is front page news, while the death of his attacker is buried deep inside the paper, if reported at all. But there's another reason why the response to attacks are rarely reported. The military judiciously applies force, which means there's often no big explosion to show the viewing public back home. The enemy blows up civilians, while coalition forces use precision strikes to remove enemy combatants. But more to the point, the media are a lazy beast and, it seems, the Pentagon hasn't been doing a good job feeding it.
Mr. Miniter is assistant editor of OpinionJournal.com. His column appears Tuesdays.
Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reerved
The perception of chaos within Iraq is nothing more than a media event. Given the liberal bias of mass media, and the fact that "Good news isn't good for ratings", the infotainment industry may be expected to pander to those who desperately want to believe the worst. You've got to remember these are the same folks who warned an attack on Iraq would result in thousands of body bags coming back to the US, destabilize the entire Mideast, cause a humanitartian refugee disaster of biblical proportions, and who, once things were under way, were alarmed at and highly critical of the "slow pace" of the most rapid, longest sustained, continuous advance against armed opposition in all of recorded history, which advance, BTW, was achieved at the lowest casualty cost ever achieved in modern warfare. The current intensification of action is indicative of a vigorous, and highly successful, offensive being now being undertaken by Coalition Forces. In conjunction with the current 130,000+ (and growing day-by-day) Coalition-trained indiginous Iraqi security personnel, the bad guys will find the developing situation significantly reducing their freedom to operate. You have to remember too that the folks who stand to gain the most by negative news from Iraq are the very same folks who are currently reeling from the shock and awe brought on by the latest economic reports. They refused to see that coming too. Some folks just don't want to get it.
Here's a conjecture: Watch for major shakups involving the Interim Governing Council, The Coalition Provisional Authority, and possibly even Bremmer himself over the coming days. I don't expect the recently announced steel tariff will be around much longer either, but that has little to do with Iraq.
)...but I hope you get the point... Unless you are a machine, there IS a limit of acceptable losses. Where is yours? 
