1. 655,000 is an awfully big number. That would mean that this war killed a whole lot of people. (Jane Galt)Quite a few of these arguments would serve Holocaust revisionists. Personally, I have no idea if the figure of 655,000 is accurate; a lower number would not surprise me. However, the counter-arguments offered by these reactionaries are strained, ludicrous, and...well, funny.
2. If 770 extra people were dying in Iraq every day, why don't we hear about them on the news? (Gateway Pundit)
3. The study was published before the election. (Instapundit) (Political Pitbull)
4. The peer-reviewed paper must be bogus because the editor of the Lancet goes to anti-war rallies. (Anti-Idiotarian Rotweiler)
5. The pre-invasion death rates are too low. Surely, Saddam was filling mass graves two months before the invasion. (Chuck Simmins)
6. Those peacenik scientists just wish there were more dead Iraqis. ("When the statistics announced by hospitals and military here, or even by the UN, did not satisfy their lust for more deaths, they resorted to mathematics to get a fake number that satisfies their sadistic urges," Omar Fadil.)
7. I just know the study's wrong, but I can't figure out how. Math people? (Michelle Malkin)
8. Sure the study's methodology is standard for public health resesarch. But don't forget that public health is a leftwing plot. (Medpundit)
9. These "statisticians" say that you can take a small sample from a large population and learn a lot about the whole population. As if. I'll believe those 665,000 Iraqis are dead when they tell me so. (Tim Blair)
Thursday, October 12, 2006
The Iraqi dead: Black humor
Mass death is nothing to joke about. But when you read Majikthise' collection of right-wing reactions to the report of 655,000 Iraqi dead, you won't know whether to laugh or scream:
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7 comments:
I'm assuming that these are either paraphrases or outright fabrications of what these bloggers actually said...
Worth noting that the study actually says that deaths could range from 400,000 to 900,000 with the 655,000 being a likely median. Focusing on the 655,000 number makes it seems like the study is too exact to be believed.
Okay, this post is INSANE. And I can't believe how sad it's making me. Jesus.
What a bunch of rightwingnut fruitcakes! Denial, just more denial.
Miss P.
The citing of the right wing pundits gives us yet one more grotesque example of “truthiness” I have little doubt as to the accuracy of these figures. Their methodology appears to be impeccable. How does this figure stack up to the number of innocent Iraqis killed by Saddam? I think we must have surpassed him by now. On what side should we place the number of children struck down by the UN sanctions?
not only is it within the realm of very real possibility that the real number is closer to 900,000 (or even 400,000), but ANY number within that range falls within a 95 percent confidence interval. the 655,000 is a statistical mean (not median) of that confidence interval.
moreover, 87 percent of the interviews asked for death certificates, and 90 percent of the time, these were produced.
the piece that is not being mentioned is how this number compares to the normal death rate in that country for the time period. from the bbc:
* * * * *
Of the 629 deaths they recorded among these families since early 2002, 13% took place in the 14 months before the invasion and 87% in the 40 months afterwards.
Such a trend repeated nationwide would indicate a rise in annual death rates from 5.5 per 1,000 to 13.3 per 1,000 - meaning the deaths of some 2.5% of Iraq's 25 million citizens in the last three-and-a-half years.
* * * * *
the total 54 month period in question should break down this way: 14 months pre-invasion = 26 perecnt of total, 40 months since = 74 percent. as the second paragraph states, the post-invasion percentage is twice the normal trend.
what is also not mentioned is that the death rate prior to our invasion was already artificially high because of the decade of bombing they had been suffering at our hands.
and in our name. all of this is done in our name.
Yes, I think it should be emphasized that an increase in the Iraqi death rate does not translate into combat deaths. To cite but one example: Weaken the health care system and docotrs will no longer be able to do preventative care or to care for the elderly.
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