A Safer Place

100,000 excess civilian deaths in Iraq due to war.

Mortality was already high in Iraq before the war because of United Nations (news - web sites) sanctions blocking food and medical imports but the researchers described what they found as shocking.

The new figures are based on surveys done by the researchers in Iraq in September 2004. They compared Iraqi deaths during 14.6 months before the invasion in March 2003 and the 17.8 months after it by conducting household surveys in randomly selected neighborhoods.

I have seen the "ten thousand civilian deaths" cited since about June of 2003, as if civilians hadn't been dying by the hundreds since then. I don't know how accurate the 100,000 number is, but I'll bet it's a lot closer to the truth than 10,000.

So I guess Bush's new line will have to be: "There may not have been any WMD's or WMD programs or ties to 9/11 or relationships with al Qaeda, but Iraq is definitely a more dangerous place without Saddam Hussein in power." And his idiot supporters won't even notice the difference, and cheer the moron anyway.

[Update] Juan Cole discusses the report in greater detail.