"Small price"

GOP House Leader John Boehner recently made light of the casualties in Iraq, describing the deaths of American troops (3700 and counting) as a "small price" to pay to get rid of al Qaeda (which of course wasn't in Iraq to begin with).

Interestingly, he includes the typical "think of our children" nonsense, saying

it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids.

Yes, I'm sure the kids who will never know their parents will be ever so glad about the invasion.

Anywho. Majority Whip James Clyburn had a response, saying in part

I was appalled to hear Minority Leader Boehner's statement yesterday that the loss of American blood is a 'small price' to pay in Iraq. The loss of American blood is never a small price.

All well and good, and it's nice to see somebody attacking Boehner for his callousness. But in all this talk about how big a deal each American death is, we completely overlook all the Iraqi deaths that have been caused by this abominable exercise in imperialism. According to the most recent poll, over one million Iraqi citizens have died in this war:

These findings come from a poll released today by O.R.B., the British polling agency that have been tracking public opinion in Iraq since 2005. In conjunction with their Iraqi fieldwork agency a representative sample of 1,461 adults aged 18+ answered the following question:-

Q How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age)? Please note that I mean those who were actually living under your roof.

None 78%
One 16%
Two 5%
Three 1%
Four or more 0.002%

Given that from the 2005 census there are a total of 4,050,597 households this data suggests a total of 1,220,580 deaths since the invasion in 2003.

But of course, "we" aren't paying that price, so it doesn't really count.