The respected British medical journal The Lancet has published the results of a study by public health experts from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and Baghdad’s al-Mustansiriyya University. The rather stunning conclusion of the study is:

Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths…

Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children.

Think about this: if a foreign power occupied your state – because we are talking about a smallish country here – and killed 100,000 civilians, including women and children, and showed no sign of leaving, what lengths would you go to in order to fight that foreign power? What about people in neighboring states – who may be your friends and relatives – who have reason to believe the foreign power is coming after them next? What might they be willing to do?

With that in mind, does it seem like a good idea to be in the position of that foreign power?