New Survey: A Million Iraqis Dead Since US Invasion

[Doug]

LONDON (Reuters) - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.

The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.

ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the revised figure.

The research covered 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Those that not covered included two of Iraq's more volatile regions -- Kerbala and Anbar -- and the northern province of Arbil, where local authorities refused them a permit to work.

Read the rest here.

[Betsy]

This is quite possibly the greatest tragedy of the war. Anyone who is willing to watch anything besides Fox News or "Project Runway" and watches shows like Nightline or HBO specials/documentaries like "Baghdad ER" or "the Liberace of Iraq" can see what's really going on in Iraq, and it's horrific. Meanwhile, the people of Iraq would prefer Saddam Hussein's regime to what is happening there now.

We must end this war immediately.

[Dardedar]

DAR
Well Bush did say the other day he wanted to fill the coffers.

And that he has:

[John Galt]

I guess attempting to kill American Soldiers is a VERY, VERY, VERY BAD idea. I would think that the muslim world is quite low on virgins these days. (I prefer just 1, experienced women- I guess these guys are incredibly poor lovers)

This is a grossly inflated number. Still innocents die in war, in world history no country as attempted to sincerely save innocent life like the U.S.

Hitler would have simply executed 100 Iraqis for every German soldier killed. Savage yes, but in the end far fewer people would die (that is how their "now hung" previous leader governed.)

The US Armed forces have been brilliant and very mindful of civilians, like no other army in history.

I wish you folks would attempt to read a bit of history. We live in savage world. I'm proud of the brave men and women of the US Armed forces, brave and kind- yet nobody can kill you quicker when you provoke them.

Your happy and hate free true pal,
John Galt

[Dardedar]

This is a grossly inflated number.

DAR
Do you have anything beyond wishful thinking and mere assertion on this?

I hadn't seen this ORB study Doug refers to. I have read quite a bit about the well known Lancet study from over a year and a half ago. Rather hard to argue when the family produces the death certificate:

***
The Lancet study's figure of 654,965 excess deaths through the end of June 2006 is based on household survey data. The estimate is for all excess violent and nonviolent deaths. That also includes those due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc.. 601,027 deaths (range of 426,369 to 793,663 using a 95% confidence interval) were estimated to be due to violence. 31% of those were attributed to the Coalition, 24% to others, 46% unknown. The causes of violent deaths were gunshot (56%), car bomb (13%), other explosion/ordnance (14%), air strike (13%), accident (2%), unknown (2%). A copy of a death certificate was available for a high proportion of the reported deaths (92 per cent of those households asked to produce one). --LINK

Has Bush been responsible for the death of around one million people? The evidence suggests so.

Incidentally, if you were to assume an average height of 5 feet per person and were to lay the bodies end to end, the line would be 946 miles long. Too bad Bush doesn't know anything about war.

Regarding US military casualties, Bush said there weren't going to be any. See below. Perhaps he thought he could replicate the good fortune Clinton had. He never sent a person into combat that didn't come back. Amazing really.

D.
----------------------------------
"The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."

LINK