Crikey commentators spilt their soy lattes as they raced to write up the 2006 John Hopkins University report in the Lancet that estimated more than 600,000 violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion of March 2003.
A new study conducted by the World Health Organization and the Iraq Health Ministry published in The New England Journal of Medicine, puts the estimated death count for the same period at 151,000 – about a quarter of the John Hopkins figures.
Ties Boerma from the WHO has told US National Public Radio that researchers for the Hopkins study visited far fewer neighborhoods and villages, 47 so-called clusters compared to the WHO’s 1,000 clusters.
“Because we are talking about a survey that is much larger, we have a little bit more confidence in that method than in a very small cluster survey,” says Boerma.
Only 150,000 dead. Phew. That must be a relief for eveyone, especially all those we killed. Or should that be especially for all those we didn’t kill. Get real. War crimes are war crimes. Bring Howard, Bush and Blair to justice. And Rudd too.
surveys &statistics,bla.Before I consider any researchvalid, I need to know where the funding comes from(especiallyscientific research)What was the reason for the survay.as survays most are designed with a result in mind.theburden of the Educated cynic
excess versus violent. Talk about tragedy. Heartbreaking really. Very depressing. This item should be marked, not suitable for politiking.
151000 human beings murdered illegally. What if they were Australian not Iraqui?, Fundamentally we are all the same. We should be totally outraged!
Thank God Christian has bought the revised toll to our attention. I feel much better now knowing “only” 150,000 died. Gotta go, my latte is getting cold.