At 23:43 08/12/04 +0000, Ted Harding wrote (in part):
>One can see weasel words here. "Most reliable" in the sense that
>the number of deaths reported from Iraqi hospitals to the Iraqi
>Minstry of Health is no doubt much more reliable as a measure of
>deaths in Iraqi hospitals than either the Iraq Body Count or the
>Lancet study is a reliable measure of overall deaths. The phrase
>"most reliable figures for casualties in Iraq" does not explicitly
>say "overall casualties". You can -- and if you're a Minister may
>want to retain the option -- say that what you REALLY meant is
>"of all the categories of casualties in Iraq, the category of
>which we have the most reliable estimate is the category of
>casualties in hospital, as reported by Iraqi hospitals to the
>Iraqi Ministry of Health".
>Is that not true, now? (or is it ... ??)
Indeed so. It is undoubtedly true that the hospital deaths figure is a
much more reliable/accurate estimate of what is being estimated than are
any of the estimates of overall death figures.
Ted's implication that these 'weasel words' were deliberately and cleverly
chosen so as to mislead, deceive and suit political purposes may, of
course, be right. However, I do not necessarily have that much faith in
the cleverness of politicians or even those (if any!) whom they choose to
advise them. Accordingly, I am perfectly prepared to entertain the
possibility that they didn't think/understand enough and genuinely believe
that the figure for hospital deaths of 'non-combatants' is a reasonable
estimate of overall deaths.
Indeed, in a much more general sense, whenever there are suggestions of
conspiracies, deliberate wrongdoing, deliberate misleading etc. by 'clever
politicians', I think there is very often an alternative 'innocent' (if
that's the word!) explanation in terms of incompetence, poor understanding
and bad/inadequate advice on the part of 'less-than-clever politicians'.
Kind Regards,
John
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