The Democratic Majority Leader made this assertion in an interview published today:
Q: You disagree with the assessment President Bush and Gen. Petraeus put forth this week. How do you think the course should be changed?
A: All you have to do is look at what they said. Nothing has changed since the surge started. Today, now we learn that 1 million Iraqis have been killed since the war started. A million. That's pretty hard to comprehend: 3,800 Americans, 30,000 wounded. More than 2,000 double amputees.
Senator Reid's
assertion may be based on this absurd "poll." (HT:
Rawhide Reality).
The casual trafficking in casualty estimates that immediately become propaganda for our enemies is astonishing. BDS strikes again.
Over 54 months, a million deaths mean an average of 18,518 deaths every month, or about 600 a day --every day for the last four and a half years.
Islamist radicals don't need to make up outrages for their media machines to distribute. Senator Reid has done it for them.
UPDATE:
In November of 2006, Iraq's health minister estimated the numbers of Iraqi s killed since the war began as between 100,000 and 150,000. But what's a 600 % exaggeration when you are trying to cause political damage to George Bush?