That’s the latest meme in the “deny the undenyable” sweepstakes, the attempts to wish away the Lancet report. I first came across it yesterday, in the comments to this post over at Charlie’s, when Charlie brought up the simple fact that because the occupiers refuse to keep records, the Lancet studies are the best estimates we have of Iraqi deaths. Several people responded to this with variations on ‘the “occupation” ended a couple of years ago’, as if the tens of thousands of foreign troops waging war on the Iraqi population is somehow magicked away by some sort of meaningless handover ceremony. Clue: the US and UK forces are not under Iraqi command.
You have to wonder about the mindset of people who are able to ignore 600,000 deaths by arguing that well, the Coalition wasn’t in control so that makes it all right…