Getting a very accurate count, akin to the U.S. military count, is virtually impossible. But getting a decent count- within an order of magnitude, say, should be fairly simple. Despite the dangers and the limitations, reporters seem to have done a pretty good job of reporting specific incidents of violence around Iraq, as the daily rattle of bombings, shootings, and discoveries of dead bodies would suggest.
Given that reporting, you could go back and calculate an average daily total for deaths and then arrive at a number of total deaths over a specific period. It wouldn't be very accurate- nothing more than an estimate, really, but it would certainly be accurate within an order of magnitude. Let's assume that 50 civilians a day died, on average, during that time period. That comes out to around the 50,000 number that various groups have estimated. Does anyone really believe that daily toll is significantly higher than 50? Say 100, or 200, or even 300? Many of us have been following the war since the beginning, and I for one have never gotten a sense that 100 or more people were dying everyday. Yesterday, for example, more than 100 people were killed in suicide attacks, and it was a very prominent story because of the body count. If there were body counts like that everyday, the stories on the news would be totally different than what we see. On 3/7/07, So Kenfused wrote: > > I find it hard to believe that anyone considers the Lancet report to > have any credibility. It made big splashy headlines but was immediately > refuted by just abut everyone, including those against the war. > > It would not surprise me that Iraqi casualties have been under reported. -- --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:229673 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
