I don’t like to get into politics unless it is health related, but this is too sad. And I suppose that over half a million needless deaths is related to health.

From Medpage:

If Iraq had not been invaded it is estimated that 654,965 people who died, would not have done so, according to an article in The Lancet, Thursday October 12, 2006.

Two years ago another article, also published in The Lancet, had estimated that about 100,000 extra lives were lost because of the invasion between March 2003 – September 2004.

In this new paper, Gilbert Burnham, John Hopkins Bloomberg University, USA, and team came to the 654,965 figure by calculating total deaths between March 2003 to June 2006, and comparing them with total deaths during January 2002 to March 2003 (before the invasion).

47 sites throughout the country were selected, each containing between 1849 households and 12,801 household members. Each household was asked about births, deaths, in-migration and out-migration between May and June 2006. When a death had occurred in a household death certificates were produced 92% of the times. The researchers did not ask household members whether the dead household members were civilians or combatants.

It is any wonder that the so-called “insurgents” are trying to get the occupying armies out of their country. Does this smell like Vietnam to anyone? If it doesn’t, you’d got your head in the sand.

654,965 people represents 2.5% of Iraq’s total population. 2.5% of the USA would be 7.5 million deaths, 2.5% of the UK’s population would be 1.5 million deaths. During The Second World War the United Kingdom lost 0.94% of its population, France lost 1.35%, China lost 1.89% and the USA lost 0.32%.