On the 19th March Tony Blair and George Bush launched an illegal attack on Iraq, which has thus far resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 Iraqis. However, unlike the deaths of US and British soldiers - or those killed in the 9/11 atrocities - these deaths appear to have been all but forgotten here in the West. Even when they are mentioned they usually feature as a mere statistic, not as real flesh-and-blood human beings.

So far between 6,000 - 8,000 Iraqi civilians, 13,500 Iraqi soldiers and 340 "coalition" forces have died in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. (For Iraqi civilian casualties see www.iraqbodycount.org. Figures derived from a comprehensive survey of online media reports and eyewitness accounts, independently reviewed and error-checked by the Iraq Body Count project team. For estimates of Iraqi military casualties see 'Body Counts' (Guardian, 28th May 2003). For "coalition" forces see www.cnn.com/
SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/index.html.

Today, Iraq lies in chaos and US/UK forces - attacked on an almost daily basis - continue to kill Iraqi civilians with apparent impunity. See eg. Robert Fisk's recent article 'Secret slaughter by night, lies and blind eyes by day' (Independent on Sunday, 14th September 2003) in which he estimates that perhaps as many as 1,000 Iraqis are being killed each week in family feuds, looting, revenge attacks, at US checkpoints and in the increasingly vicious raids by US forces:  http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=4208