The "stats" as quoted by the Iraqi minister of health this morning are 350 civilians dead. Not to sound insensitive, but that's a far cry from thousands. Make of it what you will.

Hrm, well 350 in a week multipled over many weeks will add up quickly. Plus, if I were an iraqi I'd be much more worried about the effects of all the depleted uranium in those dirty bombs we are dropping on baghdad. That shit has a 4.5 Billion year half life!

From that first link you sent (the cnn one):

"Mubarak also said Iraq is trying to get more accurate figures on the dead and the wounded. He said there have been about 4,000 civilian casualties -- including the dead and wounded." So lets see, the iraqi government says there have been 350 civilian deaths that they know of, they have no idea how many military casualties there have been, and that the total of dead and wounded are 4000. I would doubt these numbers as I would doubt anything else that the iraqi government has said, but if you compare that to the paltry 50 or so deaths we've had so far, plus the fact that the REAL death wont start until we enter the major iraqi cities, this is no small conflict. Personally, from a moral standpoint, every death is equal. Its not like 350 deaths is somehow "better" than 4000. 350 deaths is bad. 4000 death are bad. 1 death is bad. When did people get so accustomed to murder?! _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus