According to recent reporting in the Boston Globe, about $2,500, at most. At least, that’s the rate at which the United States government will pay the survivors of anyone our soldiers kill in Iraq:

WASHINGTON — The amount of cash the US military has paid to families of Iraqi civilians killed or maimed in operations involving American troops skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data. […]

Defense Department officials maintain that the payments — which officials said range from a few hundred dollars for injuries such as a severed limb to $2,500 for the death of a relative — mirror a local custom commonly known as “solatia,” in which families receive financial compensation for damages or human losses. They stressed that the payments shouldn’t be seen as an admission of guilt or responsibility.

More on the flip side . . .
Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars. Doesn’t look much bigger when you spell it out, does it? But that’s what we pay. That’s what our government considers adequate compensation for the death of someone’s wife, husband, grandfather, teenage son, or infant daughter. Let me give you an example of how meager that amount is.

In 1982 I was hit by a drunk driver and suffered a head injury that caused partial loss of hearing in one ear and vertigo (the sensation that the room is spinning, which most people only experience after a night of heavy drinking). Eventually the vertigo problem was resolved by surgery. What was my claim worth when I settled my case? $200,000.

Now don’t get me wrong. I felt more than justified in receiving that amount for my injury (about $100,000 after taxes and the attorney’s fee). I only mention it now to make the point about how little we consider the value of human life in Iraq.

Now consider that last year, our government paid $20 million in the form of restitution for the death and other mayhem caused by our troops to innocent civilians in Iraq. Assuming the maximum of $2,500 per person (and we know many people were paid only a few hundred dollars for lost limbs) that amounts to at least 8000 innocent people killed or wounded. My guess is that the number is higher, maybe as many as 16,000. Lot’s of luck ever getting the real number though. Probably classified information. The kind Bush staffers are unlikely to leak to Judith Miller.

Then consider that this year, in the month of January, alone, wwe (I mean you and I as taxpayers collectively) paid out another $4 million of this “solatia” as it is called in Iraq. With the new assault on Ramadi already in its opening phase , I expect to see the figures for these payments rise even faster this month.

Not that there aren’t any questions about this practice. There’s always some treasonous Democrat sticking his or her nose into things:

The payments to victims’ families in Haditha are part of what is generally considered a common US military practice in Iraq. But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is pushing for a broader investigation into condolence payments.

“The dramatic rise in condolence payments raises many questions of accountability and process — and serve as a warning sign for incidents like Haditha,” Kennedy told the Globe in a statement yesterday.

A Pentagon spokesman, asked about the rise in condolence payments last year, yesterday said that the US commanders in Iraq have the discretion to determine how and when the money is disbursed. US officials in Baghdad did not reply to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail.

Vietnam gave us body counts. Not surprisingly, Iraq has given us an even better quantifier: condolence payments. After all, body counts (as we discovered in Vietnam) can be inflated, but when it comes to money paid to ordinary Iraqis by our military commanders (as opposed to money paid to defense contractors) I’ll bet we’re getting the real numbers. Considering we lost billions to graft and corruption in the Bush regime’s Great Iraq Rebuilding Project, I can see where the Bush administration might consider this to be more cost effective than actually providing the Iraqis with security, health care and rebuilt infrastructure (water, sewer, electricity, that kind of thing). Just pay them (or their surviving family members) when you kill or maim them. Simple. Cheap.

Very cheap.

Kudos to dada who pointed me to this story in this comment.