Looks as if one clears away the propaganda, the folks with an agenda, and attempts to calculate this figure using standard practices, the worst fears are correct.

"The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.

"Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.

"But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust".

The Bush-Cheney idea of freedom seems to tie in very closely with Janis Joplin's - "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." 655,000 of 'em are liberated. Please pardon those who don't express their gratitude - they're speechless.

And "democracy" means having a foreign army not accountable to local laws patrolling your streets killing your civilians. Those poor Iraqis.

Arf