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Flame » in reply to Getting ready for the Big 2K Bash

100,000
Laurie Street — (archived)

You seem fixated on this number, Tom, but I recall going over (and over and over) it with you some time ago. The Lancet article described a statistical survey of some areas of Iraq that indicated, with a fairly reasonable degree of certainty, that about 100,000 more Iraqis had died (at that time) since the start of the war than had died in a similar time period before the war. The authors didn't propose that all these deaths were direct war casualties - presumably the reduced level of medical care and sanitation would have played roles as well.

Some people took it as an exact measure of direct war deaths, but that was their problem - everyone spins.

To me it seems you downplay the negaqtive consequences of the war when you deride the 100,000 figure (which, if it was accurate at the time, is surely much higher now).

How many Iraqis do YOU think have died as a direct or indirect result of this war? (and please don't guess at how many people Saddam might have murdered if he had still been in power)

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