Sure, if by that you mean none of the deaths from sanctions were directly attributed to sanctions, but that gives a skewed picture.
I appreciate the caveat. I'm not sure why you would think I was ever 'comfortable' with deaths. They are a reality. That doesn't mean they are meaningless. When someone says 'many more people have died with the intervention than if we had stayed out' then they are using a bodycount to establish the unworthiness of the action. I responded to that.
I answered your post in a genuine manner. You've asked me a question like 'have you stopped beating your wife.' To answer it asserts I only look at people as a statistic.
It wouldn't surprise me if he said that too. But then again when you're Joe Stalin that's an easy mistake to make.
The difference is that its pretty obvious when a body is riddled with shrapnel that it was killed by a bomb. Its a little harder to determine the direct cause regarding deaths by sanctions which is why I would be more skeptical of numbers regarding casualties caused by sanctions. I don't deny that the sanctions didn't cause deaths but its harder to draw a direct correlation to say that everyone who died, or even a majority of those that died in Iraq, during the period of sanction can be directly attributable to sanctions.
