Iraqbodycount.org does a reality check on the widely—publicized study in the Lancet, a British medical journal that used to be prestigious, claiming 650,000 deaths from the war.

That's more twice the maximum death tally from the Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki bombings with Dresden thrown in for good measure.

The Iraqi mortality estimates published in the Lancet in October 2006 imply, among other things, that:

1. On average, a thousand Iraqis have been violently killed every single day in the first half of 2006, with less than a tenth of them being noticed by any public surveillance mechanisms;
2. Some 800,000 or more Iraqis suffered blast wounds and other serious conflict—related injuries in the past two years, but less than a tenth of them received any kind of hospital treatment;
3. Over 7% of the entire adult male population of Iraq has already been killed in violence, with no less than 10% in the worst affected areas covering most of central Iraq;
4. Half a million death certificates were received by families which were never officially recorded as having been issued;
5. The Coalition has killed far more Iraqis in the last year than in earlier years containing the initial massive "Shock and Awe" invasion and the major assaults on Falluja.

D.M. Giangreco   10 17 06