War Kills

War results in the deaths of women, children, and other noncombatants at a rate most of us fail to recognize. A report in the New England Journal of Medicine tells the sad tale of Iraq.

In events with at least one Iraqi civilian victim, the methods that killed the most civilians per event were aerial bombings (17 per event), combined use of aerial and ground weapons (17 per event), and suicide bombers on foot (16 per event). Aerial bombs killed, on average, 9 more civilians per event than aerial missiles (17 vs. 8 per event).

Female Iraqis and Iraqi children constituted the highest proportions of civilian victims when the methods of violence involved indiscriminate weapons fired from a distance: air attacks and mortars.

The entire report is a worthy read. The numbers are terrible to consider. Just imagine how the people losing a relative must feel. There are no warm and fuzzy relations being developed by our indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Peace.