Thursday, March 27, 2003

TOO MANY BODIES

According to the latest reports on the BBC News web site, the Iraqis claim a civilian death toll of 350 since the start of hostilities. This contrasts with a report I heard this morning claiming not more that 160. That earlier report and other stuff I had seen over the last few days prompted me to think again about the Iraq Body Count ticker on my blog. When I last lloked, that showed a minimum of 227 and a maximum of 307.

I freely admit that the body count only adds to the "fog of war". That fog is getting thicker as days go on.

As an example, over the last day or so there have been reports of Iraqi tank columns leaving Basra and Baghdad, seemingly a significant numer of troops looking to confront "coalition" forces, perhaps in a pre-emptive move.

"2025: A column of as many as 1,000 vehicles of the Iraqi Republican Guard is reportedly moving very close to the American units south of Baghdad."

"1705: A large convoy of about 70-120 Iraqi tanks and armoured personnel carriers - is seen moving out of the southern city of Basra, heading south-east; coalition aircraft are said to be preparing to attack them."

from yesterday's BBC Iraq latest.

This contrasts to the build up to war when we were told by the military or the press or someone that the Iraqis would fall back into the centre of Baghdad, attempting to engage in street fighting and hand-to-hand. Anyway, those columns, the press now report, were, in the case of Basra, a couple of armoured vehicles full of irregular soldiers co-erced to leave the cities by members of the Ba'ath leadership.

"Defense officials in Washington, however, questioned whether the movements were as large as reported or were offensive in nature."

from the Washington Post

"1030: British forces engaged and destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks that tried to break out of the southern city of Basra, according to military sources."

from the Guardian

This is the latest in a line of story threads which "develop" over time. My advice, is don't beleive any "latest" reports. If you want to follow what's going on, look at an overview of the news and take a critical judgement on what seem to be dramatic events.

It may not be accurate, but the intention of it is to show that every day innocents are being sacrificed in this invasion/liberation. So, the counter stays...for now.

And another thing: I will gladly post a verifiable death count of civilians under the Saddam regime. Can anyone help?

:: Posted by pete @ 13:00