En spørreundersøkelse blant irakiske husstander viser at omkring en million irakere har mistet livet som en direkte konsekvens av krigen:
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.
The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.
The margin of error in the survey, conducted in August and September 2007, was 1.7 percent, giving a range of deaths of 946,258 to 1.12 million.
ORB originally found that 1.2 million people had died, but decided to go back and conduct more research in rural areas to make the survey as comprehensive as possible and then came up with the revised figure.
Andre kilder og metoder gir vesentlig lavere tall, men disse har fått kritikk for å være alt for lave:
Medical journal The Lancet published a peer-reviewed report in 2004 stating that there had been 100,000 more deaths than would normally be expected since the March 2003 invasion, kicking off a storm of protest.
The widely watched Web site Iraq Body Count currently estimates that between 80,699 and 88,126 people have died in the conflict, although its methodology and figures have also been questioned by U.S. authorities and others.
Hvis sannheten er et sted midt i mellom, dvs omkring en halv million dødsfall, så må vel dette uansett være et alt for stort offer i den såkalte "kampen mot terror". Hvordan kan man forsvare så store tap, hvorav en stor del sivile, for å nå et diskutabelt høyere gode?
