WHAT ABOUT THE 3000+

Today marked the formal end of UK combat operations in Iraq. Now whether one was for or against the liberation of Iraq from the Saddamite tyranny (And I was totally in favour) I am sure we are all at least united in saluting the bravery of UK armed forces on the ground. Our fighting men and women always do us proud and sadly 179 lost their lives. What bothered me greatly about the BBC coverage of this today was the way in which Hugh Sykes kept referring to the 3000+ Iraqis who also died in the British controlled zone. He never explained how many of this number were Jihadists, or were killed by Jihadists. He simply lumped all the deaths together to obtain a handy soundbite figure that implied that the scale of UK deaths caused by the “invasion” were dwarfed by the huge losses to Iraqis. He ignored all context – the quagmire motif held to the end.