Civilian death toll in Iraq 50 times greater than most Americans think from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.
Last week a study was published online claiming that the casualties in Iraq related to war are fifty times higher than many Americans believe. In a survey from 2007, the majority of Americans surveyed believed that the civilian casualties in Iraq were at less than 50,000.
Researchers from the US, Canada, and Iraq conducted the study that included a survey of 2,000 households across 100 geographic regions in Iraq. Researchers estimated 405,000 deaths as a result of the war and another 56,000 as a result of displacement.
When asked to estimate the death toll, one student was close, guessing 500,000, while another was in line with what the majority of Americans thought.
The realities of war weren’t lost on students Chris Almand or Branson Spencer.
“People in America don’t see war because it’s not in the country,” said Almand. “They don’t know the effects of it. They don’t know that a bomb going off in the street kills more than just soldiers. It could kill some Average Joe walking down the street at the time. So I just think they overlook facts like that.”
“In the media they’re going to do that too, they’re not going to show you the bad parts of America,” said Spencer. They’re going to show you the good parts and then the bad parts of the other countries so it makes us seem, or we’re going to be like ‘Oh! Well it’s terrible over there. At least it’s not that bad over here.’ So I feel like most Americans do have this idea of ‘America’s perfect’ when in reality it’s really not.”
