In the past God-knows-how-many months, it has become a regular daily occurrence on CNN or just about any other news outlet (biased or not) to inform about a suicide bombing in Iraq, which the consequent number of casualties. One day it's 5, another day it's 40, then 20, then 10, and so on. It seems that we have become desensitized about the fact that these are people, just like you and me, who are dying left and right there.
So, I wondered: how many have died? I Googled the question "how many dead in Iraq" and I got such a wide range of answers, that I was astounded:
-This blog post from last October refers to a report that extrapolated as many as 100 thousand Iraqi lives (the report.
-But even as far back as February 2003, there was talk about the 100,000 figure.
-Then there's this other blog, who places the death toll somewhere between 21,940 and 24,987 (as of this post).
And if you continue to search, you will find numbers that top these and numbers in the low thousands. So, who's right? Don't know, and I don' even know if it matters... not to those in the frontlines, at least, those whose lives are in danger every day, as they go to get their groceries or as they inspect someone's ID in a checkup point. It's sad to see so many human lives being lost...