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October 28, 2004
Killing Fields
Under the Same Sun reader Bob flags this very important story:
A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months since the U.S.-led invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war....
Designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, the study is being published Thursday on the Web site of The Lancet medical journal.
The survey indicated violence accounted for most of the extra deaths seen since the invasion, and airstrikes from coalition forces caused most of the violent deaths, the researchers wrote in the British-based journal.
"Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," they said.
...
The most common causes of death before the invasion of Iraq were heart attacks, strokes and other chronic diseases. However, after the invasion, violence was recorded as the primary cause of death and was mainly attributed to coalition forces — with about 95 percent of those deaths caused by bombs or fire from helicopter gunships.
...
Twelve of the 73 violent deaths were not attributed to coalition forces. The researchers said 28 children were killed by coalition forces in the survey households. Infant mortality rose from 29 deaths per 1,000 live births before the war to 57 deaths per 1,000 afterward.
...
"This isn't about individual soldiers doing bad things. This appears to be a problem with the approach to occupation in Iraq," Roberts said.
And, also, the lead author acknowledges he's trying to get the candidates to pledge to protect Iraqi lives, thus the timing of the release before the election:
Les Roberts, the lead researcher from Johns Hopkins, said the article's timing was up to him."I emailed it in on Sept. 30 under the condition that it came out before the election," Roberts told The Asocciated Press. "My motive in doing that was not to skew the election. My motive was that if this came out during the campaign, both candidates would be forced to pledge to protect civilian lives in Iraq."
The numbers are much worse than what I had thought they would be. I'll post more as the full report becomes available. Infant mortality is almost double that of the sanctions era. It's hard to know what to say.
Posted by zeynep at October 28, 2004 06:53 PM
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Comments
Also read in several places of many traffic deaths from Humvees driven by frightened GIs who distrust every Arab they don't identify immediately.
Posted by: Ralph at October 28, 2004 08:16 PM
And note that neither Kerry or Bush addressed the issue of civilian casualties in Iraq. I think the thing to do now is for American citizens to get it into the media in as many ways as possible.
Posted by: Susan at October 29, 2004 10:33 PM