[lbo-talk] Re: Juan Cole on Death Math in Iraq

kjkhoo at softhome.net kjkhoo at softhome.net
Mon Nov 1 23:52:30 PST 2004


At 2:31 am -0500 1/11/04, John Bizwas wrote:
>This analysis is, well, bizarre. Why don't we start from the
>beginning of the US-Iraq conflict and say that we have to account
>for the total number of dead in a war that has been going on for
>well over a decade now?

If you are referring to the article in The Lancet, then sorry, such a response is bizarre. These people have put together a strong case, avoiding the "unnecessary" arguments: take everything in the terms that are given, and compare pre- and post-invasion, exclude the Falluja outlier, and they come up with 100k. Peto says the methodology is sound. The Blair govt is trying to pooh-pooh these numbers, saying they are nothing more than extrapolations, etc. What more do you want -- that they get drawn into arguments about sanctions, etc., etc.?

kj khoo



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list