After I wrote to my MP (Tom Levitt - Labour) stating my concern over the
civilian deaths in Iraq following the report in the Lancet that estimated
there to be 98,000 civilian deaths, he replied stating that he had more
confidence in the figures reported on web sites than in the academic paper
published in a peer reviewed medical journal ... interesting.... He's exact
words are:
"This report has to be put in context. Over the last 12 months there have
been a number of websites, updated daily, by those who oppose the war. These
websites have claimed to have authoritative figures on the number of dead
and wounded. By and large, it is the view of those websites that the actual
figures is around 30,000. The 'official' figures, based on the actual number
of deaths and injuries reported to actual hospitals and medical facilities
throughout Iraq is half that number, around 15,000. I am inclined to
discount The Lancet figure, which is the only survey which has reached a
figure of anything like that number."
Has anyone else had any similar bilge come through their letter box after
writing to their MP? If you do, I recommend you reply asking for the
government to release all the data collected by the military that they have
on civilian deaths in Iraq since March 2003.
Incidentally, you can find websites that report the Jewish Holocaust never
happened, should we believe those sites too?
Here is a paragraph from a paper I have submitted to a US CP journal
"The first scientific survey of civilian deaths in Iraq since the beginning
of the military action by coalition forces in March 2003 was recently
published in The Lancet (Roberts et al., 2004). The survey reported 100 000
excess deaths or more had occurred since the 2003 invasion of Iraq with
violence accounting for a majority of those deaths and with over half of
those who had died violently being women and children. An author of the
study, Dr Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in
Baltimore, stated this to be a rather conservative figure and that the death
toll could be considerably higher. Unsurprisingly, the Pentagon in the USA
and Downing Street in the UK were quick in their attempts to discredit the
survey. However, previously the total death toll (civilians and combatants)
of the ‘war on Iraq’ between March 20th and October 20th in 2003 was
estimated to be between 21,700 and 55,000 (MEDACT, 2003). Thus, such death
toll figures are not without precedent."
MEDACT (2003). Continuing collateral damage: The health and environmental
costs of war on Iraq. MEDACT. Retrieved from http://www.medact.org.
p
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mark Burton
Sent: 17 November 2004 18:05
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Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] [Fwd: ANNOUNCEMENT]
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT
From: "Ignacio" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, November 17, 2004 3:29 am
To: "Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@cariari.ucr.ac.cr
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En blanco
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From Mark Burton
Manchester UK
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