Report: Civilian Deaths in Iraq
2 years, 4 months agoMonochrom has just blogged regarding the burying of a Lancet Report on Iraqi death toll. The report seems to be methodologically sound, and based on their findings they conservative conclude that most Iraqi deaths are from US “operations” rather than insurgent/”terrorist” activities.
It’s definitely worth at least a quick scan in order to understand the politics and get an idea of how reasonable the claim seems to be. I’m sure most are aware that the Lancet is one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, and does not okay material lightly.
Unfortunetly, the Z Commentary Online article loses some of its authority with the following:
Their most significant finding was that the vast majority (79 percent) of violent deaths were caused by “coalition” forces using “helicopter gunships, rockets or other forms of aerial weaponry,”
So far so good…
and that almost half (48 percent) of these were children, with a median age of 8.
(my emphasis) Now, reading further on we find that their definition set for children is under 15. As median is the central value in a range this is tautological, and presumably masquerades for “average age of 8″ to give the article and report a little more emotional impact. Of course it is quite possible the average age is much lower, but from here there is no way for us to know either way.
Regardless, this does not effect the actual and weighty conclusions of the Lancet report.