Murdoch Downplays Iraq Death Toll

Speaking to journalists at a conference in Tokyo, News Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Murdoch, downplayed the death toll following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. "The death toll, certainly of Americans there, by the terms of any previous war are quite minute," he said. "I believe it was right to go in there. I believe that certainly the execution that has followed that has included many mistakes," he said. Murdoch's global media network strongly backed the push for war. In April 2004 Murdoch said that "there is one small part where the Sunnis are, which were the people who supported Saddam Hussein, who are giving trouble." The death toll of U.S. military in Iraq is now over 2,830. A recent study published in the the U.K medical journal The Lancet estimated that 600,000 deaths Iraqis have died as a result of the war.