WikiLeaks Highlights Lack of Transparency on Death Toll in Iraq

The WikiLeaks leaks only confirm what many journalists discovered while covering the aftermath of the American war in Iraq: the lack of transparency in everything concerning the toll of the conflict on victims and the extent of the torture practiced by American soldiers and their Iraqi allies, particularly in prisons.

How many times have we heard not only ordinary Iraqi citizens but also Western diplomats say that U.S. officials downplayed the amount of targeted attacks as well as the number of Iraqis killed in their own operations against guerrillas?

The WikiLeaks leaks — though not very surprising — do well in quantifying this distortion of reality.

The pan-Arab television channel Al-Jazeera, which had access to the reports before their publication on the WikiLeaks website, reported 285,000 victims, including at least 109,000 deaths, of which 66,000 — nearly two-thirds — were civilians. Until now, the Iraqi government had reported that there were at least 85,694 civilians and security officials killed between January 2004 and October 2008. Last July, the U.S. Army estimated that 77,000 Iraqis died between January 2004 and August 2008, during the worst periods of religious and ethnic violence.

The difference is important. It has not escaped the attention of outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is a candidate for re-election. For him, these leaks seek to undermine his wish to stay in the race for the head of government.

At a time when Americans are withdrawing their combat troops from the country, these revelations will not change much for the Iraqis. The U.S. military is reviled by large segments of the population, but today it is the Iraqi government that could be held accountable, rather than the former occupiers on the point of departure.

A small regret: WikiLeaks should also address the corruption that affects all the ranks of the U.S. military in Iraq. Corruption is found in everyone — from diplomats to arms dealers — who ventures onto U.S. turf.