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It Looks like Iraq Really is a Bloodbath
by James Glaser
Some time last fall there was a report on the internet and on some of the nightly news programs about how John Hopkins University estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since we attacked that country in 2003. Here are three quotes from George Bush on that study. GEORGE W. BUSH: "I don't consider it to be a credible report." GEORGE W. BUSH: "Neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials." GEORGE W. BUSH: "I stand by the figure a lot of innocent people have lost their lives. Six hundred thousand, or whatever they guessed at is just, it's not credible." After the President and the rest of his administration trashed those reported results, the study mostly disappeared from any debate on Bush's war. Well, now it is back, but not in our newspapers, nor on our television. It's in the British press, and it's big. The British government slammed the report when it first came out too, but they also told their people to study those results and report back. Well, they did just that, and now they are saying that the report might be right on. Richard Horton writing in the Guardian newspaper reports, "Scientists at the UK's Department for International Development thought differently. They concluded that the study's methods were "tried and tested". Indeed, the Hopkins approach would likely lead to an "underestimation of mortality". The Ministry of Defence's chief scientific advisor said the research was "robust", close to "best practice", and "balanced". He recommended "caution in publicly criticising the study". Now in Britain they are saying, "Indeed, the Hopkins approach would likely lead to an underestimation of mortality." So, now they are thinking that the 650,000 number of Iraqi civilian deaths could be low. George Bush will never buy that report, because it makes him the greatest mass killer in this new century. George will admit to over 30,000 innocent Iraqis dying, and somehow he believes that number is justifiable, and he can live with that, but when the number goes over half a million, he will not allow us to think in those terms. Thus, our media will most likely not cover the British findings. The Guardian's cover story starts out with this: Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week, the BBC reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American- and British-led invasion in March 2003. If you follow the Iraqi war at all, you know that since the John Hopkins report last October, at least another 10 to 15,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Can you say, "Bloodbath?" |
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