President Obama had two words for a crowd of returning Iraq war veterans on Wednesday: “Welcome Home.” The president observed the end of a war that has defined a decade of American military might, and divided the country. Yet while there are accurate statistics about soldier casualties, an accurate count of how many Iraqis have been killed or wounded during the occupation remains unclear. Ned Parker is the former Baghdad bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times. He is now the Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and has just returned from a two week trip to Iraq. Zainab Samir, a 27-year-old Iraqi woman who works as a University lecturer in Baghdad, gives her experiences as well.
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