More than 1,200,000 civilians in Iraq have died since the start of the Gulf War, when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 (Source: United Nations and Iraq) (cited by Peg)

I have often seen similar figures and wondered. If you go to the available statistics and look up the total population of Iraq and the death rate per thousand inhabitants you can calculate how many Iranians are expected to die within any number of years. For the time period the site Peg (and Keith) have cited uses, I did calculate 1,4000,000 expected dead assuming stable population. Since the population in Iraq actually has grown considerably within the last years, my estimate is bound to be too high. So it seems to me to be quite close to the 1,2000,000 cited above.

Could it be that someone just has added all dead persons in Iraq since the second gulf war and then gives this information in carefully worded juxtaposition, 1,200,000 dead civilians - since 1990, to make a cheap point?

Let me play with this type of argumentation:
3,700,000 German civilians have died since the (very moderately) left government came into power in 1998.

Wolfgang