Iriemon

Based on the debate about how many bodies have actually been found in Iraq (300,000-400,000 as the neocons spun it) that could have resulted from Hussein's government's murders, I did a little research.

First, in late 2003 and 2004 (about the time they were realizing there were no WMDs and had to come up with another reason for the war), there were lots of reports about mass graves sites containing hundreds of bodies.

Google Iraqi mass graves and you'll see hundreds of reports from that time period.

Leading the pack was Tony Blair, who told folks repeated that 400,000 bodies had been found.

But then:

7/18/04
Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair [starting in Nov 2003] that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.

The Baathist regime was responsible for massive human rights abuses and murder on a large scale - not least in well-documented campaigns including the gassing of Halabja, the al-Anfal campaign against Kurdish villages and the brutal repression of the Shia uprising - but serious questions are now emerging about the scale of Saddam Hussein's murders.

It comes amid inflation from an estimate by Human Rights Watch in May 2003 of 290,000 'missing' to the latest claims by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, that one million are missing.

At the heart of the questions are the numbers so far identified in Iraq's graves. Of 270 suspected grave sites identified in the last year, 55 have now been examined, revealing, according to the best estimates that The Observer has been able to obtain, around 5,000 bodies. Forensic examination of grave sites has been hampered by lack of security in Iraq, amid widespread complaints by human rights organisations that until recently the graves have not been secured and protected.

PM admits graves claim 'untrue' | Politics | The Observer

That put the estimate at about 5000 in July 2004.

I tried, but couldn't find a reliable report that gives a sum of the total number of bodies found in mass graves since then.

so how many reports of bodies found in mass graves have there been in the ensuing 4 years?

I canvassed websites and news articles to see how many I could find from reasonably reliable sources reporting actual bodies found or uncovered (versus "estimates").

The following reports all I found.

If anyone has anything that should be added, I'd be interested to see it.


10/13/04
The first trench contains the remains of women and children, and the second contains the remains of men only. More than 100 bodies have been found from the first location and a similar number from the other.

CNN.com - Mass grave unearthed in Iraq - Oct 13, 2004


4/15/05
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bodies of 41 Kuwaitis believed killed during the 1991 Persian Gulf war have been unearthed in southern Iraq, one of 295 mass graves containing thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims uncovered in the two years since US-led forces invaded and ousted the dictator, Iraq's Human Rights Minister said yesterday.

In a telephone interview, Bakhtiar Amin said he informed the Kuwaiti government of the discovery three days ago. The bodies were found in a mass grave in the city of Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad.
The discovery was another step in documenting what happened to 605 Kuwaitis who have been missing since the 1991 war.

The bodies of only 190 other Kuwaitis have been identified.

Mass grave of Kuwaitis uncovered - The Boston Globe


4/30/05
BAGHDAD, April 29 -- U.S. investigators have exhumed the remains of 113 people -- all but five of them women, children or teenagers -- from a mass grave in southern Iraq that may hold at least 1,500 victims of Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurdish minority in the 1980s, U.S. and Iraqi officials said this week.
113 Kurds Are Found In Mass Grave


6/9/06
Among experts on the American-led team investigating Iraq's mass graves, the skeletal remains lying face-up at the rear of the tangled grave here have been given a name - the Blue Man, that speaks for a sorrowful familiarity developed by some of those who work with victims of mass murder. Together, in the late winter of 1991, at least 28 men were executed here …In desert grave, Iraq's horrors - International Herald Tribune


3/8/08
Large Iraq mass grave discovered
Mass graves are regularly found in Iraq. Some are recent, some date to Saddam Hussein's era Security forces in Iraq have found a mass grave containing about 100 decomposed bodies. The grave, discovered in Khalis, north of the capital, Baghdad, is one of the largest such finds in several months.

Iraqi and American officials said it was not clear who was responsible, but the grave may date back to sometime before the 2003 US-led invasion.

In February, a grave with about 50 bodies was found near Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, during a hunt for al-Qaeda militants, Reuters reported.
[/i]
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Large Iraq mass grave discovered

That leaves us considerably short of 300,000-400,000.

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CaptainCourtesy

Dishonest post, Goobieman. Please post the precise quote from the article where Obama says it is OK to lose in Iraq. And not your "interpretation", which is nothing more than "interpretation". Precise words.

If you want to debate what Obama meant by: or

then that's one thing. But, nowhere does he even imply "losing".

And as far as your "questions" go, since Obama never stated these things, your "questions" are an example of the "when did you hit your wife" (complex question) logical fallacy, and therefore non-relevant to the article, and yet another in the long series of attempted Goobieman "trap" threads, that I constantly must expose.

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"Never fear. Him is here" - Captain Chaos (Dom DeLuise), Cannonball Run

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CaptainCourtesy

The questions are non-relevant to the article, and composed entirely from your own opinion/interpretation. THAT is why no one is answering the question.

CaptainCourtesy

Moderator's Warning:

Insulting another's username is name-calling. Please cease doing this.

aps

Who says I don't?

No matter how much you infuriate me at times, I just can't help but like you.

Goobieman

I'm sorry -- I dont see how you can interpret wanting to pull out of a war before its won - indeed, without any consideration as if it is won or being won - in any other way that "its OK to not win this war" or "it is OK to lose this war" or, especially, "we do not have to win this war".

So, unless you can provide an effective alternative interpretation, your complaints here hold no water, and all you're doing is avoiding the question -- like all the other Obamapiles.

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American

Hey wait a minute! Obama is going against the party line. Afghanistan is not worth it, an ABC poll says so.

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It's Obama's fault!

jallman

Yeah, well it's mutual. It's cuz we're pretty.

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obvious Child

As much as some handles here would love to cast their opposition as Saddam lovers (note that's intellectually dishonest), no one is praising Saddam or calling him anything better then an absolute scumbag.

That said, the graves found, notably the 400,000 number are not his work, they are the work of the burial culture of Islam.

And remember that our own embargo lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, many of them children.

All in perspective.

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Reverend_Hellh0und

Love the blame america first mentality....

They were UN sanctions and also the world largest embezzlements scheme in history.

Friends of Saddam

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Never forget those who died.
Never forget those who killed them.