Nearly half a year ago, Johns Hopkins researchers reported that the Iraq war had cost more than 600,000 civilian deaths. The US and British governments quickly countered with statements dismissing the study’s methodology and conclusions. Their cause was helped by the sheer horror of such numbers and much lower estimates by Iraqi government spokespersons and other pro-invasion sources. The US government has steadfastly refused to release casualty figures with the excuse that “We don’t do body bags.”
Now the British Defence Ministry’s chief scientific advisor has concluded that the Hopkins methodology is “robust” and recommends that the British government avoid public criticism of the report:
The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.
Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.
But the Ministry of Defence’s chief scientific adviser said the survey’s methods were “close to best practice” and the study design was “robust”.
Another expert agreed the method was “tried and tested”.
Apparently the document backing the study’s methodology was released only after a BBC Freedom of Information demand, and after a 4-month delay. So the US and British governments knew about the conclusion even while they were trashing the study’s methodology.
Just one more sickening example of the kind of lies and disinformation used to keep this murderous disaster going. At this time, no US “news” outlets other than NPR appear to have picked up the story.