President Bush today estimated that the war on Iraq has killed 30,000 Iraqi civilians but maintained that the given what he now knows and the human toll of the war he would “make the decision [to invade Iraq] again” as the Saddam Hussein’s removal from power has “made the world a better place and America a safer country.” Bush offered no substantive proof that the world or the United States was better off without Hussein in power, yet he did provide a number that is generally consistent with most casualty estimates. This admission is significant in that the United States, represented by General Tommy Franks, previously stated that they “do not do body counts” and could not estimate the number of Iraqis killed during the war.
The estimate came during another speech on Iraq and the “war on terror” in which President Bush outlined the United States’ plan for winning the Iraq War. Aside from the estimate of the number of Iraqis that have died in the war, President Bush offered new justification for the war and instead chose to draw links between Iraq and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, declaring that terrorists aligned with the Iraqi insurgency are motivated by the same ideology as the 9/11 hijackers.
