Juan Cole comments on the WHO study which found the war in Iraq has cost an excess of 151,000 violent deaths over what one would expect without the American action. As horrible as this is, the study admits it did not take into account the most violent areas, because it was too dangerous to go there. This would make the estimate appear to be on the low side.

This finding is in contrast to the Lancet study which estimated Iraqi deaths at approximately 600,000. In contrast, the Lancet study did go into the most dangerous areas, and from what I have read from people who understand statistical rigor and reporting methods, there is every reason to believe the Lancet study is in fact the most accurate information we have, however repugnant that figure may be.

As Juan Cole notes, though, even the lower figure is horrendous (and does not take into account the estimated 2 to 4 million Iraqi refugees the war has caused). He ends his piece as follows: “Bush has gutted American civil liberties, and turned us into a hateful nation of spies, torturers, bigots, and colonialists occupying someone else's country…. And he has managed to unleash a maelstrom of violence in the Middle East that has wiped out the population of a medium-sized city. Surveying civilian deaths in Iraq is like walking through Lincoln, Nebraska, after it was hit by a neutron bomb, with everyone dead. Everyone.”