Back in September, British opinion pollsters ORB released a study showing over a million Iraqis had died in the war and occupation. Now they’ve released a follow-up study, which focussed on rural communities rather than urban areas like the previous one and guess what? the results confirm their earlier study:
Further survey work undertaken by ORB, in association with its research partner IIACSS, confirms our earlier estimate that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003.
Following responses to ORB’s earlier work, which was based on survey work undertaken in primarily urban locations, we have conducted almost 600 additional interviews in rural communities. By and large the results are in line with the ‘urban results’ and we now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000. If one takes into account the margin of error associated with survey data of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and 1,120,000.
All of this is largely in line with the two Lancet studies, as well as the Iraqi Family Health Study (See Deltoid for more information). No doubt it will be hotly denied by the true believers, but the evidence is overwhelming that the invasion of Iraq continues to be a crime of gargantuan propertions. The solution remains the sme: troops out of Iraq.
Meanwhile, I would like to see similar surveys for Afghanistan, which isn’t looking good either.