Thursday, October 12, 2006

That Iraqi "death toll" figure

Yesterday, the Lancet published a report stating that the number of people killed in Iraq "since the invasion" was 650,000. The figure was arrived at by a linear extrapolation calculated from a random sampling of 1,800 Iraqi households in 47 areas across the country.

I don't there is much more to say than the last sentence really. Calculating the number of people killed by taking a random sampling data is not exactky sound practice. What's more the extrapolation claims to be "since" the invasion, even if it were right it does not necessarily mean the deaths are "because" of the invasion.

The Lancet's report has however been picked up on by the likes of MPAC and will be milked for every last drop.

2 comments:

Rigger Mortice said...

leving MPAc alone,I think the figures are highly debatable anyway.they only interviewed 2000 homes which as a random sample is not that large.

Anonymous said...

oh my god, did you really say that?? even if the exact number is inaccurate, the material point is that far too many people have died. heartless bitch