When the Pentagon starts throwing around estimates of who got killed and
how in its assorted wars in the Middle East, they are often wildly
inaccurate. Nowhere was this more apparent than a new briefing this week
on estimates in the 2003-2011 Iraq War.
Designed for Special Envoy Brian Hook to give hawkish speeches on Iran, the briefing estimated that Iran was “responsible” for the deaths of 608 US troops
during the Iraq War. This was an upward revision from a 2015 estimate
of 500, and seemingly was only done to allow Hook to bring it up now.
A more accurate estimate would, of course, be zero deaths. Despite years
of anti-Iran rhetoric, the US has never conclusively pinned a single
death on the Iranian government or its forces. Rather, these deaths are
all loosely attributable to Iraqi Shi’ite factions.
That anyone Shi’ite is necessarily under Iranian command is a popular
conceit for US officials, and in Iraq, where 60 percent of the
population is Shi’ite, there are no shortage of Shi’ites to blame,
particularly militias that didn’t support the US occupation of Iraq.
Some of these groups had ideological ties to Iran, though other
substantial factions, like the Mehdi Army, were nationalist groups that
opposed both US and Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs. It is
convenient for the US to blame Iran, however, so that’s what they’re
doing.
Trying to make all Shi’ites equal Iran has continued beyond the Iraq
War. In Syria, the US has routinely threatened Shi’ite militias for
being “Iranian fighters,” and the entire justification for US meddling
in the Yemen War is that the Shi’ite Houthi movement, whose form of
Shi’a Islam is distinct from the one in Iran, must be in league with
Iran.
Pentagon Claims Iran Killed 608 US Troops in Iraq War
Estimate is based on blaming Iran for actions of Iraqi Shi'ites
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
×