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October 31, 2004
Lancet Study on Iraqi Deaths
The Lancet, the world's pre-eminent medical research journal, has published a study on Iraqi mortality rates (login required, get one here) before and after the 2003 invasion. In it, they conclude that approximately 100,000 Iraqi deaths can be attributed to the war.
The major causes of death before the invasion were myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents, and other chronic disorders whereas after the invasion violence was the primary cause of death.... Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.... We have shown that collection of public-health information is possible even during periods of extreme violence. Our results need further verification and should lead to changes to reduce non-combatant deaths from air strikes.
Posted by bcoffee at October 31, 2004 01:40 PM
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Comments
Terribly high numbers. This may be tough for us in the U.S. to take, but these are innocent people dying. Even going with the official British total given by Jack Straw of 15,000 civilian deaths (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3962969.stm ), this number is unacceptable in my eyes and I would put more faith in The Lancet than the British government. Killing innocent people is immoral, I can understand collateral damage, but this is going way past that. I do not think our troops are doing this knowingly nor should be blamed; they are being given bad orders based on bad intelligence.
Posted by: pmcmahon at October 31, 2004 02:46 PM
