PHA-Exchange> Iraq Deaths - Politics vs. Science

[Claudio]

From: "Marcy Bloom" <marcybloom at comcast.net>
> 
> Editor's Note: The cost of the Iraq War in blood and money keeps rising.
Still, perhaps the most shocking recent news was
> the study by medical experts estimating that the war has caused the deaths of more than 600,000 Iraqis.
> Last week, the medical journal The Lancet <http://www.thelancet.com/>
> released an epidemiological study concluding that 655,000 Iraqis died from war-related injury and disease from March 2003 to July 2006. This shockingly
> high figure has drawn attacks from the Bush administration and right-wing pundits.
> ************************************
> By Curren Warf, MD    (excerpts)
> October 18, 2006 Professor of pediatric medicine and a board member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, 
> I wish to set the record straight. The Lancet
> study is superb science. The study followed a strict, widely accepted methodology to arrive at its sobering conclusion. The study is being
> attacked not on scientific grounds, but for ideological reasons.
> 
The Iraq study was subjected to a thorough peer-review by specialists in the field of epidemiology.
> 
The survey involved a total of 1849 Iraqi households. It documented a four-fold increase in the crude mortality rate from the pre-invasion to the post-invasion periods. 
> 
> The investigators followed the same methodology in Iraq that has had been
> used in estimating death and disease in other conflicts such as the Congo --where the Bush administration uncritically accepted their results. 
 
 We must also not discount the possibility of bias by government officials in releasing officia figures; the U.S. and Iraq have much to gain by minimizing civilian deaths.
> 
> At his Oct. 11 press conference President Bush asserted "No, I don't call it a credible report." He said he asked the generals and the generals told him it was wrong. 
> 
Critics have attempted to discredit the Hopkins study without specifically addressing the science whatsoever.
> 
> As physicians, we realize the horrible human cost and needless suffering the American invasion has brought on the people of Iraq. The war has also terribly harmed our own American soldiers, 2,765 of whom have been killed
> and 20,000 of whom have suffered disabling injuries.
> 
 655,000 is not a guess. It is the best estimate
> that we have to date of the human tragedy in Iraq. 
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