2005 By The Numbers

This week's LA CityBeat features a brief rundown of 2005 by the numbers. A small sample:

American soldiers killed in Iraq, according to U.S. Department of Defense: 2,158

American soldiers killed in Iraq since "Mission Accomplished" speech: 2,025

Coalition civilian contractors killed in Iraq, as recorded as "incomplete list": 293

Number of Iraqis killed, as acknowledged by President George W. Bush: 30,000

Number of Iraqis killed, according to official casualty reports: 27,569 to 31,088

Number of Iraqis killed, according to house-to-house survey in Iraq published in British medical journal, The Lancet, in Oct 2004: as many as 100,000

United States taxpayer funds spent on the Iraq War, from congressional appropriations: $228 billion

Taxpayer funds spent on Iraq War paid by Los Angeles County residents: $7,202,000,000

Authors Dean Kuipers and Katherine Horn also go into the numbers involved in November's Special Election, environmental issues and iPod sales. As they say, "Because numbers talk and bullshit walks."

Makes for interesting reading.