“Consider just this: Because the sample size was so small, the range for deaths was wider than Mick Jagger’s mouth: 8,000 to 194,000. So Roberts and company just split the difference. They said the tiny sample size was necessary because the interviewers were in constant danger. No doubt they meant being caught in the crosshairs of an F-16, rather than any possible threat from those jolly terrorists who routinely kidnap civilians and slowly saw off their heads.
Further, the researchers didn’t feel bound by anything official like death certificates. Interviews were fine. “In the Iraqi culture it was unlikely for respondents to fabricate deaths,” they wrote.”
“Even anti-war and anti-American groups and individuals have indicated the Lancet figure is outlandish. “These numbers seem to be inflated,” due “to overcounting,” Marc Garlasco, of Human Rights Watch told the Washington Post. The website http://www.iraqbodycount.com estimates about 14,000-16,000 deaths since the war began. The Evil One himself, bin Laden, in his pre-election video, made reference to the Iraq war and stated “over 15,000 of our people have been killed.””
