Last night over 80 people attended a vigil to remember the more than 2,000 United States soldiers (2,006 at the time of this writing) who have died thus far in the war in Iraq. The majority of vigil participants held signs drawing attention to the deaths of US soldiers and calling for the United States to end the war and bring the troops home. Many participants also held candles and participated in a reading of the names of the 2,000 soldiers that have died. The response from passing motorists was largely favorable with numerous peace signs being waved and cars honking, an indication of the fact that 53% of US citizens now want the US military out of Iraq.

Regrettably, the vigil largely failed to take into account the Iraqi victims of the United States war. While a few signs made general references to civilian casualties in Iraq, the Iraqi people have made up the majority of the human toll in Iraq. The number of civilian casualties in the Iraq war has varied depending on the methodology used, but the three most credible studies place the number at 26,732, 39,000, or 100,000 with some 3,870 civilians killed in the last six months. Moreover, a thorough count of the dead in Iraq would include the victims of more than a decade of US policy in Iraq, including the 3,000 that were killed as a direct result of the 1991 invasion of Iraq, the thousands that died as a result the United States’ targeting of important Iraqi infrastructure, and the deaths of some 500,000 Iraqi children due to US supported sanctions.