One of the first attempts to independently estimate the loss of civilian life from the Iraqi war has concluded that at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died because of the U.S. invasion.
The analysis, an extrapolation based on a relatively small number of actual documented deaths, indicated that many of the excess deaths have occurred due to aerial attacks by coalition forces, with women and children being frequent victims, wrote the international team of public health researchers who made the calculations.
Pentagon officials say they do not keep tallies of civilian casualties, and a spokesman said Thursday there is no way to validate estimates by others. The past 18 months of fighting in Iraq has been "prosecuted in the most precise fashion of any conflict in the history of modern warfare," the spokesman said, adding that "the loss of any innocent lives is a tragedy, something that Iraqi security forces and the multinational force painstakingly work to avoid."
Previous independent estimates of civilian deaths in Iraq have been far lower, never exceeding 16,000, and other experts immediately challenged the new estimate, saying the small number of actual documented deaths upon which it was based made the conclusions suspect.
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CNNs version:
In a survey published on the Web site of the Lancet medical journal on Friday, experts from the United States and Iraq also said the risk of death for Iraqi civilians was 2.5 times greater after the invasion.
Two-thirds of violent deaths recorded in the study were reported in the Sunni triangle city of Falluja.
"Democratic imperialism has led to more deaths not fewer. This political and military failure continues to cause scores of casualties among non-combatants. It is a failure that deserves to be a serious subject for research."
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~OK the researchers cooked the numbers hoping to get money for a bigger and better survey, that will coincidentally sound like good news in comparison? (Statistical extortion?) Proving conclusively only 60,000/50,000/40,000 Iraqi men, women and children died, that wouldn't have died, if we hadn't invaded? Hurray! USA! USA! USA!
No matter the number ultimately agreed upon by the news-pundits et.al. President Bush is the man responsible for sending between 16,000 and 100,000 souls to heaven or hell before their time.
Does that make Jesus happy or sad?
News junkies note: the above newspaper item can't bring itself to mention the Lancet or John Hopkins as the source for "the analysis". Amateur journalism or censorship?
The Lancet did this study. Imagine the American Medical Association printing something that might upset the politicians with the power to tax their investment portfolios?
Posted by Cieciel at October 29, 2004 11:46 PM