Beatnik

Great point. I think shifting the discussion to "how many tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands" misses the point. The point is that many many people have died unnecessarily, people that were not enemies of the US prior to 2003 when we initiated an assault on the country. And to what benefit?

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Private Book

Exactly! and you'll notice if you read carefully that they have not yet proven any challenge to these numbers. Challenges are quite common after a survey is released but so far no one has been able to refute the numbers. Theres a big difference between people saying " we think the numbrs are too large" and the numbers actually being disproven. For instance heres this quote from the bbc article. "Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, which tracks statistics in its Iraq Index, said: "I do not believe the new numbers. I think they're way off." In the peer review world we would say to Michael (and I bet someone has said it) That's nice Michael, it's good to know your thoughts on things, now why don't you go out and prove it.

the BBC article also points out it would take a couple people just a few days to disprove the results of the survey yet no one has.

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leejo

OK but by the same token none of the peer reviewers would actually be supporting the numbers either. They would have reviewed the methods. These people who challenge the methods are on the same footing, it seems to me.

The article quotes the study's author's assertion that it would take a couple of reports a couple of days. Slight difference.