# US military kills babies in Iraq **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 11, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584 "2004-07-11T18:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/1 "2004-07-11T18:01:04Z")
Did any US bombs kill any babies in Iraq? Could someone provide a cite that a US military action/bomb killed a baby in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/2 "2004-07-11T18:07:23Z")
Assuming all civilian casualties from bombs are mistakes, and aren’t somehow targetting only adults, then some percentage of those casualties pretty much has to be babies. The estimates I’ve heard are between 10 and 20 thousand civilian deaths, so probability alone says there virtually has to be many babies in that mix. Is anybody actually claiming no babies were killed? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/3 "2004-07-11T18:23:54Z")
[Here](http://www.iraqbodycount.net/bodycount.htm) is a database summarizing media reports that total more than 11,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. Not all of these may be accurate, and some were not due to U.S./coalition action. However, there can be little doubt that there have been many thousands of civilian deaths from coalition actions during the conflict. These reports mostly do not indicate the age of the casualties. However, what do you think the odds are that not one of these many thousands was a baby? Do you think we have some kind of magic baby-avoiding bomb? ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/4 "2004-07-11T18:27:30Z")
I know that it’s no cite, but I remember news footage of a father carrying his baby that had been killed in the bombings and accusing the coalition forces. I’ll see whether I can find a link. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/5 "2004-07-11T18:50:14Z")
The folllowing link shows images of civilian casualties in Iraq, including babies and small children. > **[Akvariefisk | Roberts fisk](https://www.robert-fisk.com/)** > > I denna guide:SötvattensakvariumPopulära sötvattensfiskarCikliderTetrorBarberLevandefödareSaltvattensakvariumKallvattensakvarium Robert-fisk.com är min personliga hemsida of söt- och saltvattenakvarium. Här kan du lära dig allt från hur man sätter... Click on the link PICTURES: “Victims of the Anglo-American Aggression.” (Seventh link on the page). WARNING! EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING IMAGES! While this is clearly an anti-war site, and again not all images may be the result of coalition bombing, I would think not even the most ardent supporter of the war would contend that such things did not occur. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/6 "2004-07-12T02:40:30Z")
“The blast in his home killed his father, siblings and pregnant mother.” " ‘Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands?’ he had asked from his bed. ‘If I don’t get a pair of hands, I will commit suicide,’ he told a Reuters reporter." [http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,183591,00.html](http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,183591,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/7 "2004-07-12T03:00:13Z")
[Mod hat on] **Kel**. This might be the forum for your continuing, poorly-worded questions. Moved from GQ. **samclem** GQ moderator [Mod hat off] ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/8 "2004-07-12T03:05:51Z")
Americans are bad. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/9 "2004-07-12T03:15:25Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Americans are bad. Hey! I just moved the thread. Why you dissing me, man? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/10 "2004-07-12T03:18:09Z")
Oh! Now I get it. You’re telling me that I’m _BAD_, ala Steve Martin and Richard Pryor. Cool. I’m BAD. Yeah! I’m BAD. ---
**Author:** ![carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/11 "2004-07-12T03:42:06Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > You’re telling me that I’m _BAD_, ala Steve Martin and Richard Pryor. Also Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/12 "2004-07-12T04:08:48Z")
**Fahrenheit 9/11** shows footage of of dead children and babies killed in the invasion. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/13 "2004-07-12T04:56:48Z")
> [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#): > > Did any US bombs kill any babies in Iraq? Could someone provide a cite that a US military action/bomb killed a baby in Iraq. Now that this is in a more appropriate place, could you please explain what kind of fuckwitted moron actually imagines that the kind of bombing campaign we carried out in Iraq didn’t kill a single baby? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/14 "2004-07-12T06:47:37Z")
The same kind of fuckwitted moron who supports Bush’s Damn Fool War™, I’d wager. Either that, or he’s got some overblown notion of “smart bombs” being bombs that can actually identify adult enemy combatants and detonate in a way so that they’re the only ones who get killed… ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/15 "2004-07-12T07:50:56Z")
There has never been a war in which babies were not victims, but to make an issue of it as if American GIs are seeking out infants and murdering them is simply wrong. To make an issue of the obvious, that babies must be among the civilian casualties, is simply stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/16 "2004-07-12T10:21:31Z")
I second that. You can’t judge whether a war is just or unjust by this inflamatory, simplistic metric. The sad fact is, babies die in all wars. Lots of them died in WWII, but many more would have died if that war hadn’t been waged. And just because the United States military, to its great credit, actively seeks to avoid civilian deaths doesn’t mean they can always be avoided, or that our military is uniquely brutal if such deaths occur. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/17 "2004-07-12T11:57:21Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > IThe sad fact is, babies die in all wars. Lots of them died in WWII, but many more would have died if that war hadn’t been waged. Really? Could you share the reasoning behind that statement. I don’t know the exact figures but in WWII died at least 40 million persons, a high percentage of those were babies. Hitler was brutal but war is even more. WWII was one of the few wars that have to be fought, the alternative would have been horrible… but not blodier. At least imho. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/18 "2004-07-12T12:36:50Z")
The reasoning really isn’t that hard to understand. Hitler and Japan started the war. Bringing it to as quick a conclusion as possible brought the killing of babies to a stop. Babies killed by Allied action were killed because of a “total war” scenario, which entailed targeting civilians as a part of the war effort. This is brutal, but the United States military doesn’t deliberately target civilians in this way anymore. It’s a sight better, though, than the rape of Nanking and the Holocaust. And if the Holocaust hadn’t been interrupted at the point it was, more babies would have died, not through war, but through genocide. It’s nice to look at the world in such idealistic terms, that babies shouldn’t ever be killed. And I agree, they shouldn’t be, noit ideally. But military paralysis brought on by the desire not to kill them would bring gruesome results of its own. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/19 "2004-07-12T12:41:46Z")
You know, there really are enough solid arguements on which to justify opposition to the Iraq war without falling back to the “American soldiers are baby Killers!” fucknugget line of reasoning. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584/20 "2004-07-12T12:57:18Z")
> [@Estilicon](#): > > I don’t know the exact figures but in WWII died at least 40 million persons, a high percentage of those were babies. You don’t know the exact figures, but a high percentage of those killed were babies! And you stand behind that statement 100%? :rolleyes: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-kills-babies-in-iraq/254584.md?page=2)