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# Letter: Taking its toll
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/taking-its-toll/
- Published: 2013-10-18T21:01:08.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-03T21:28:13.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Letters, Opinion, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-06 13:37

Editor:

From the L.A. Times, Oct. 15:

"New research on the human cost of the war in Iraq estimates that roughly half a million men, women and children died between 2003 and 2011 as a direct result of violence or the associated collapse of civil infrastructure.

"In a study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, researchers concluded that at least 461,000 ‘excess' Iraqi deaths occurred in the troubled nation after the U.S.-led invasion that resulted in the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein. Those were defined as fatalities that would not have occurred in the absence of an invasion and occupation."

And W proudly said, "Mission accomplished."

Andy K. Liberman

Santa Monica