[extropy-chat] IRAQ: Weapons pipeline to Syria

[Damien Broderick]

>
> > Meanwhile, authoritative estimates say 100,000
> > Iraqis have been killed,
> > more than half women and kids, mostly by coalition
> > forces.
>
>Just who are these "authorities"?

It's from those communist Islamists, THE LANCET, reporting findings by the 
bin Laden-funded Center for International Emergency Disaster and Refugee 
Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore and New York's 
Columbia University's School of Nursing:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/29/1099028208196.html?oneclick=true


100,000 Iraqi civilians dead, study finds

By Marian Wilkinson
United States Correspondent
Washington
October 30, 2004

About 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - have died 
in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of air strikes by coalition 
forces, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi 
and US public health experts.

The estimated death toll was extrapolated from a survey of nearly 1000 
households in randomly selected locations throughout the country.

The study, published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, concludes 
that: "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes 
from coalition forces accounted for most of the violent deaths."

The research, led by Dr Les Roberts, was carried out by the Centre for 
International Emergency Disaster and Refugee Studies, Johns Hopkins School 
of Public Health in Baltimore and New York's Columbia University's School 
of Nursing. It will be highly controversial as it dramatically increases 
the estimated number of civilian deaths attributed to US-led coalition.

The findings are bound to be disputed by US military commanders as the 
figures would mean 150 civilians have died each day since the conflict 
began. Even non-government estimates by the widely used website 
www.iraqbodycount.com, has put the figures of reported deaths at about 
16,000 since the invasion.

US and British military commanders have repeatedly refused to put a number 
on Iraqi civilian casualties, but this study may force a change in that 
official policy. The study's authors say the death toll would be even 
higher if households in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah were included.

Two-thirds of all violent deaths were reported in just one cluster of 
households in Fallujah, but it was difficult for the researchers to 
establish whether some of the victims were insurgents.

The study compared the death rates in Iraq for 14 months before the 
invasion with an 18-month period after it.

The information was based on interviews with members of selected Iraqi 
households. Interviewers did ask to see death certificates, but it is 
unclear whether the perpetrators of the deaths were able to be cross-checked.

The study concluded that the risk of death for Iraqis was two-and-a-half 
times higher after coalition forces entered the country.

In a comment accompanying the study, Lancet editor Richard Horton called 
for an immediate change in US and British military strategy.

While acknowledging the sample of households was relatively small and 
researchers were hampered by security problems, Mr Horton said the central 
finding was that civilian deaths had risen sharply since the war.

"Democratic imperialism has led to more deaths not fewer," Mr Horton said 
in the editorial. "For the occupiers, winning the peace now demands a 
thorough reappraisal of strategy and tactics to prevent further unnecessary 
human casualties. For the sake of a country in crisis and for a people 
under daily threat of violence, the evidence that we publish today must 
change heads as well as pierce hearts."

The research will raise concerns in Washington and in the interim Iraqi 
Government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Both are preparing for a major military assault on insurgents in Fallujah, 
which is planned to be unleashed soon after the US presidential election.

The assault is expected to result in widespread civilian casualties. Sunni 
political leaders have threatened to boycott all political dialogue with Mr 
Allawi's Government if the attacks go ahead.