Civilian death toll in Iraq exceeds 100,000

[BeyondGeography]

NewScientist.com news service

The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by coalition forces has led to the death of at least 100,000 civilians, reveals the first scientific study to examine the issue.

The majority of these deaths, which are in addition those normally expected from natural causes, illness and accidents, have been among women and children, finds the study, released early by The Lancet on Thursday.

The most common cause of death is as a direct result of violence, mostly caused by coalition air strikes, reveals the study of almost 1000 households scattered across Iraq. And the risk of violent death just after the invasion was 58 times greater than before the war. The overall risk of death was 1.5 times more after the invasion than before.

The figure of 100,000 is based on "conservative assumptions", notes Les Roberts at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US, who led the study…That estimate excludes Falluja, a hotspot for violence. If the data from this town is included, the study points to about 200,000 excess deaths since the outbreak of war.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996596

[Beaverhausen]

1. Yeah, there's your "culture of life" n/t

[Skinner]

2. I have to repeat this sentence.

"That estimate excludes Falluja, a hotspot for violence. If the data from this town is included, the study points to about 200,000 excess deaths since the outbreak of war." (emphasis added)

I'm ashamed.

[gottaB]

3. Let's rate up the Yahoo! story

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&e=3&u=/afp/iraq_toll_civilians

another dose of reality

[Brotherjohn]

4. The Lancet is among the most respected medical journals. This is so sad.

I knew the 10,000 figure was likely a drastic underestimation, but this is horrible.

There goes the Bush administration's last rationale for war (that "the Iraqi people are better off").

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate topic--Please continue discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=939192&mesg_id=939192