A new study has concluded that there have been hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The governments of Iraq, the United States and Great Britain have challenged the results.
Yet even if the results are gross exaggerations, the numbers deserve more attention. In the struggle to stabilize Iraq, winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people is the key to success. Ignoring or downplaying the casualties suffered by civilians is a dangerous tactic, uncomfortable and alarming though the subject may be.
While there has been considerable attention to the death toll among soldiers fighting in Iraq, the civilian casualties have been largely overlooked. In the early days of the fighting, coalition forces officials maintained that they did not have accurate figures and were reluctant to make estimates. Finally, last December U.S. President George W. Bush said 30,000 civilians had been killed in the fighting, although it was unclear how he arrived at that number.