Thrawn,
The final number has not been confirmed yet because of the enormity of the task of digging up and identifying the bodies.
Human Rights Watch conservatively estimates at least 290,000 people are missing in Iraq.
USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) reports that since Saddam was outsted 270 sites of mass graves have been reported.
Tony Blair puts the remains at 400,000.
William Haglund, an archaeologist for Physicians for Human Rights, says there are an estimated 300,000 missing...and that the identification process is a 50 year job.
CNN reported that an Iraqi forensic team expects to find 15,000 bodies at one grave site near Mahawil, Iraq, 55 miles south of Baghdad.
Archaeologists for Human rights estimates that during the Anfal Campaign of 1987-1999, Saddam's "Final Solution" to the "Kurdish question," 4000 villages were destroyed, thousands were deported, and as many as 182,000 disappeared. Young Kurdish women were kidnapped and sold to Egyptian night clubs.
An exact number may never be ascertained. Whether it was 1,000 or 1,000,000 the invasion that toppled Saddam was justified.
Schultzie, your anti-American diatribe is unseemly. We were in no danger of running out of oil before we invaded Iraq...If that is what you're referring to. The scenes of Shi'ite Iraqis rejoicing in the streets after Saddam's fall were genuine. Whether Saddam's overthrow was accomplished by Bush or Clinton makes no difference to me...it was the RIGHT thing to do. Period.
Shuckins
