You gotta break a few eggs...

...to make a tasty Democracy Omelette.

LONDON, July 19 - Almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the two years since the United States-led invasion of the country, more than a third by American forces, according to a report released Tuesday that is sure to stir debate.

[...]

Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution who compiles a statistical abstract of Iraq to track its progress, or lack of it, under the occupation, said the Iraq Body Count figures were within the realm of reason. "We've used their data before," he said. "It's probably not too far off, and it's certainly a more serious work than the Lancet report."

According to the new report, American fire accounted for the greatest loss of life in Iraq, about 9,270 civilians, or 37.3 percent of the total. There are no estimates by the American government of civilian deaths at the hands of the American military. Most of those fatalities came during the war, the report stated. The crime wave that has overcome Iraq since the Saddam Hussein government fell was the second leading cause of death, accounting for almost 35.9 percent of the deaths, or 8,935, the report said.

In comparison, insurgent attacks specifically against American-led multinational forces caused only 9.5 percent of the deaths, or 2,353, while attacks by terrorists, whom the authors call "unknown agents," amounted to 11.0 percent of the civilian dead, or 2,731, the report said. It is not clear how the report differentiated between insurgents and terrorists. Iraq Body Count's calculations show the death toll from such violence continuing to rise.

The figures were compiled from more than 10,000 news media reports of civilian deaths. The deaths were painstakingly cross-referenced and reconfirmed across various news media, researchers said. They asserted that the results offered the first full picture of the civilian death toll in the country, down to the number of deaths caused by various weapons.

According to O'Hanlon, though, Iraqis will greet this grim news with flowers and sweets.

"This study says that Iraqis have basically accepted becoming the most violent country in the Middle East as a price for becoming the most democratic," he said.

Hmmm. I see.

Several of the Sunni Arabs withdrawing from the committee said they would not take part again until the Iraqi government, dominated by Shiite Arabs and Kurds, provides adequate security for them. They accused the government of not giving enough protection to their colleagues, Mejbil Issa and Dhamin Hussein al-Obeidi, who were gunned down Tuesday afternoon by unknown assailants while driving through downtown Baghdad. Using rhetoric that is certain to fuel sectarian tensions, some of the Sunni leaders have even implied in interviews that Shiites or Kurds may have killed the two politicians because of the men's opposition stands on critical constitutional issues.

So, who are these Iraqis who accept being the most violent country as a price for becoming...the most sectarian country in the middle east?