Counting Casualties

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Middle East studies professor Juan Cole has posted a transcript of the recent hearing by Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul on civilian casualties in Iraq. The hearing included testimony by Cole and by the scientists who conducted the recent Lancet study which estimates that 650,000 Iraqis have died in the war. Cole explains why this figure is so much higher than figures compiled from news reports: "The press just isn't reporting very many of the actual deaths in Iraq," he states, citing examples from cities like Baqubah, where "no newspaper or wire service is reporting dozens of daily deaths. ... News-gathering in contemporary Iraq is extremely dangerous and difficult. The collection and publication of social statistics has been affected by the violence and the anxieties that it spawns."