Independent group uses Lancet study to project Iraq death toll
2007-08-10
Last year, the medical journal The Lancet published an estimate of 650,000 excess deaths in Iraq based on a demographic s...
Independent group uses Lancet study to project Iraq death toll
2007-08-10
Last year, the medical journal The Lancet published an estimate of 650,000 excess deaths in Iraq based on a demographic study conducted by field workers questioning people in clusters throughout Iraq.
The group Just Foreign Policy has taken that number and projected it using Iraq Body Count, which tallies deaths reported by Western media sources. This leads to a rough estimate that one million Iraqis have now been killed in the conflict since the U.S.'s 2003 invasion and occupation.
When The Lancet published the 650,000 estimate, President George W. Bush said: "600,000 or whatever they guessed at is just, it's not credible."
We speak to Les Roberts, now at Columbia University, who is co-author of The Lancet piece "Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey." Roberts has studied other conflicts, including in Congo, where his estimates have been widely accepted.
We also speak with Robert Naiman of the group Just Foreign Policy.
Why the disparity between the Iraq Body Count numbers and The Lancet study? Patrick Ball of the group Benetech has noted: "Methods such as media reports typically capture violence well when it is moderate, but when it really increases, they miss a great deal." (Ball is a co-author of the book State Violence in Guatemala, 1960-1996, and wrote the chapter "On the Quantification of Horror: Field Notes on Statistical Analysis of Human Rights Violations" in the book Repression and Mobilization.)
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I love how the lefties would actually prefer Sadaam still brutalizing his own people. The Dem media actually wants us to lose "Bush's War". Despite the deaths that would result. They love showing the few Iraqi's who are not thanking GOD every night that we liberated them from the despot Hussein. Those who claim torture, you all are crazy. These people actually know that they will be treated better in our custody than with anyone else in the world. If the UN had teeth, this never wouldve happened
How can they possibly ask individual Iraqi's how many were killed. There is no doubt in my mind that many hundreds of thousands were claimed as "innocent civilians" while they were either fighting or aiding in the killing of our troops. The Lancet methodology, which is based on surveying those whose country is occupied, is ridiculous. Many of these deaths were actually Iraqis fighting the US troops OR Sunni/Shia violence. Don't blame the US for Muslim on Muslim violence. Thats Islam. Violent.
I always sell weapons of mass destruction to my enemies, sell saddam sarin gas, anthrax, helicopters, can anyone say donald rumsfeld? Should saddam use those weapons of mass destruction, I will take over his country and kill the children. Hypocrisy is of the devil, do a search: jesus is saviour devil sign
It's already admitted Iraq had totally nothin to do with 9/11. The US did start the chaos in Iraq already since the '80s, and had already plans before 9/11 to attack Saddam.
America is killing, torturing, and breaking all laws by raiding Iraq, and only causing hate - read: more terrorism.
Guess what i will do when American troops land in my backyard?? Wave with flag till i got phosphored, tortured, displaced, and my country in ruins en polluted with nuclear waste? Guess again!
Bomb!? What bomb? Why not an giant astroid or sumtin.. It was never a real issue if Iraq had (almost) nucleair bomb, Maybe only at the US news channels . This claim was not only unmasked as fake, shortly after (by CIA reports), it was technical unpossible - what America already knew. That's why this big joke about the "yellow cake from africa"-story turned up suddenly - and turns out to be a lie too. In the meanwhile: 1mln kids did die because lack of medication caused by (US) trade-embargo.
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America is killing, torturing, and breaking all laws by raiding Iraq, and only causing hate - read: more terrorism.
Guess what i will do when American troops land in my backyard?? Wave with flag till i got phosphored, tortured, displaced, and my country in ruins en polluted with nuclear waste? Guess again!
That's why this big joke about the "yellow cake from africa"-story turned up suddenly - and turns out to be a lie too. In the meanwhile: 1mln kids did die because lack of medication caused by (US) trade-embargo.