Being choosy (and right)

A couple of weeks back in the New Statesman John Pilger railed against the apparent lies of, you know, the usual. His attacks range from the ‘fantasy’ of al-Qaeda, Iraq, Lebanon, to New Labour’s outsourcing of GP services. Pilger called for a ‘critical public intelligence and moral sense’, an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge" (quoting Vandana Shiva). The call may have a bit more weight if, say, some of the evidence had what used to be called a factual basis. This paragraph in particular:

In Iraq, in contrast to the embedded lie that the killings are now almost entirely sectarian, 70 per cent of the 1,666 bombs exploded by the resistance in July were directed against the American occupiers and 20 per cent against the puppet police force. Civilian casualties amounted to 10 per cent. In other words, unlike the collective punishment meted out by the US, such as the killing of several thousand people in Fallujah, the resistance is fighting basically a military war and it is winning. That truth is suppressed, as it was in Vietnam.

It goes without saying that the whole paragraph is one of the more distasteful examples of left-jihadism. Yet it’s simultaneously – and un-coincidentally – a slippery enough paragraph that’s almost impossible to falsify. For instance, that 70% of bombs are targeted against the US military doesn’t disprove the predominance of sectarian fatalities. Are these civilian casualties the total number of civilian casualties, or the number of civilian casualties from the ‘1,666 bombs’? Pilger fails to offer us any source for these assertions – we’re really left to take his word for it, which, under the circumstances, is more than unfortunate. Yet, as Pilger seems to be contrasting the truth with the ‘embedded lie’ of sectarian killings, it wouldn’t be a wild step to examine these figures.

If we go to Iraq Body Count, the total number of fatalities for July 2006 is between 1,130 and 1,202. This includes between 214 and 224 fatalities from the Iraqi police. Being generous to Pilger – although I doubt if this would be reciprocated – the total number of civilian deaths for the period ranges from 916 to 978, or around 80% of fatalities.

These figures are in broad agreement with those from Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. They report a maximum figure of 1,280 for total security and civilian deaths in July 2006. ICCC report the total police and military deaths as 217 (83%), in the mid-range of the IBC figure.

ICCC also provide details of military fatalities and casualties. In July 2006, a total of 46 military personnel were killed in Iraq – this includes 43 US servicemen, 1 UK and 1 Other.

Therefore, including civilians, police and the military, total war-related fatalities for July 2006 therefore range from 1,176 (min IBC) to 1,326 (ICCC). Military deaths range from 3.5% to 3.9% of fatalities for the period. Civilian deaths – if we exclude Pilger’s charmingly termed ‘puppet police force’ – range from 913 to 1066, or 77.6% and 80.3%.

So, as it turns out, Pilger is comprehensively incorrect. The very ‘resistance’ he supports is actually killing more Iraqis than US soldiers. Far from ‘winning’, it is destroying Iraqi civil society, and one man, apparently on the left, seems wholly unashamed of his role in the process.

Comments

[David Duff]

Thank you, you have provided a real service. I always assume Pilger lies about everything but it's nice to have it demonstrated with figures.

[Dorian]

Nice work! Just one question? Do you ever write on something you agree with?!

[Daviduskas]

What a pitty that a cultured and inteligent person as yourself can´t look at the Iraq issue and recognize it for what it is: the greatest fiasco in US foreign policy since Vietname.