While Faithful Republicans stubbornly and blindly declare their obedience to the GOP, I doubt they have a scintilla of awareness of the consequences of their votes. Their "I see no evil in the GOP" will support the continuation of a failed and destructive Bush foreign policy that has produced death, death, death.
How moral is this?
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.
The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.
It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.
The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.
Of the total 655,000 estimated "excess deaths," 601,000 resulted from violence and the rest from disease and other causes, according to the study. This is about 500 unexpected violent deaths per day throughout the country.
[...]
While acknowledging that the estimate is large, the researchers believe it is sound for numerous reasons. The recent survey got the same estimate for immediate post-invasion deaths as the early survey, which gives the researchers confidence in the methods. The great majority of deaths were also substantiated by death certificates.Don't tell me the Republicans value families. Just ask the Iraqis.
UPDATE: Mahablog provides an in-depth post on the John Hopkins/Lancet study. Be sure to read comments by DrSteveB who also posted a PDF link to the entire report. Although the 2004 study may have been flawed in the rush to publish the report, the methodology of this 2006 report is sound. But right-wingers including Bush don't buy it. Well, maybe because they live in a state of denial. As always.
PHOTO CREDIT: By Mohammed Adnan -- Associated Press Photo
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