[Professor S]

This includes civilian deaths resulting from the breakdown in law and order, and deaths due to inadequate health care or sanitation.

While being unfortunate this is not exactly civilians getting shot now, is it?

Also, when reading the actual Targets from the attacks that they have added to their body count, they are including all terrorist attacks from insurgents against allied forces, Iraqi politicians and Iraqi civilians. Many of these deaths that are reported don't even involve the US military in any way at all.

This is their excuse for doing this:

In the current occupation phase the database includes all deaths which the Occupying Authority has a binding responsibility to prevent under the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations.

That along with the first quote basically makes the US military responsible for nearly any death that even remotely has a connection to the US's presence in Iraq.

Also, the Geneva Convention and Hague Reguations are extremely dated especially when it comes to acts of terrorism. Back when these rules were written, people didn't drive car bombs up to mosques. The rules were written to prevent indirectly or directly intentional abuse by an occupying power, and had no precedence for warfare taken to the populace.

But for the purposes of this argument, I'm going to give them all to you. Every single civilian death that is even remotely connected to the US occupation. In fact, I'll even give you an even 15,000 deaths this year, instead of the 11,317 that the website you posted as the MAX.

So that makes the score as follows:

US Military: 15,000 civilian deaths a year

Saddam's Iraq: 50,000 civilian deaths a year*

Wow, looks like the US military saved 35,000 civilan lives this year. Thank for the support Dyflon

*based on reported 1.5 million Iraqi civilians killed over Saddam's 30 year reign as Iraq's ruler. This also does not include the hundreds of thousands of Iranians killed during the 10 year war in the 1980's that was a result of Saddam's aggression.