Intellience Daily: “When those responsible for the American war in Iraq face a public reckoning for their colossal crimes, the weekend of September 15-16, 2007 will be an important piece of evidence against them. On Friday, September 14 there were brief press reports of a scientific survey by the British polling organization ORB, which resulted in an estimate of 1.2 million violent deaths in Iraq since the US invasion.”
1.2 million.
Think about that. That’s the entire population of Dallas. Or San Diego. Or San Antonio. Imagine. All wiped out.
If this isn’t genocide, I don’t know what is.
The only newspapers to report this figure were the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. Nothing whatsoever from The New York Times or the Washington Post.
I am sickened to be part of a country that doesn’t act to stop this carnage. That looks the other way. That doesn’t move to stop these barbarians. That doesn’t contemplate its own actions.
Report this figure. Tell others about this figure. Be reminded every day of this figure.
History will not judge Bush well. But I suspect it will judge us more harshly. 1.2 million? If this is even half-true, then we deserve everything we get because of our representative apathy. So what are we going to do? What are you going to do?
You realize that this is a horseshit story. It’s derived by asking questions of 1,499 adults and extrapolating over the population of the country. Given that the now-debunked Lancet study pegged the number of casualties as half that, why should we believe this one?
In a just world the current administration would be tried at the Hague from crimes against humanity and the citizens of the United States would br curse with a generation’s worth of guilt and shame, much like the people of Germany. But this isn’t a just world.
typo: …be cursed…
The Lancet study hasn’t at all been debunked. That a bunch wingnut bloggers desperate to avoid responsibiltiy for the carnage they’ve inflicted raises lots of stupid ass objections to otherwise statistically sound studies doesn’t make them “debunked.” From the linked-to article:
“Opinion Research Business, founded by the former head of British operations for the Gallup polling organization, is a well-established commercial polling firm. It gave a detailed technical description of the methods used to make a scientific random sample.
Six months ago, by contrast, an ORB survey in Iraq was hailed by the White House because some of its findings could be given a positive spin in administration propaganda. . .”
You keep imploring us to do something. Do you have any pragmatic suggestions? Hectoring your readers won’t do any good. Voters restored a Democratic majority in Congress, but the Democrats won’t act to defund the war, so what’s left? Armed insurrection against the present administration?
Why is Ed Champion doing this weblog when people are dying? Why is he reading novels when there are real life tragedies that occur every living second? Why, I even saw him laugh at a book party the other night! And those funny voices he does on those podcasts! How can he do his when his own country has massacred over a million people! I am appalled by the impassive expression written all over this man’s face when the world is dying all around us!
Gimme a break. Hardcore liberals and conservatives are cut from the same cloth. They start with a perspective and then use whatever data they can find to support their case with zero critical thinking about where the data came from or if it is correct. The need for hyperbole in this post is disappointing. Talk about he dumbing down of America. I hardly expected it from this site.
1.2 million…half of that…a quarter of that…Americans can be rather peculiar when it comes to calculating what qualifies as a morally unacceptable body count…considering they’re still, after 6 years…freaking out over the number 3,000.