HOW MANY PEOPLE HAS SADDAM KILLED?

The New York Times runs the numbers, but doesn’t bother to provide a total at the end. However, if amount of dead from both sides during the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s are included (and of course, it’s entirely possible that both sides inflated those numbers), then the number of dead is easily in the seven figures.

The author of this piece speaks disparagingly of Hussein’s Stalinist techniques, including his use of “handlers” to control foreign journalists. We tried to contact Walter Duranty for a rebuttal, but he couldn’t be reached.

(Sorry to carp. I’m just happy to see the Times onboard with denouncing Hussein.)