What Iraqi Casualties?

Heard a thought-provoking episode on the public radio show “This American Life” this past weekend. The episode, titled “What’s in a Number?”, included a discussion on a John Hopkins University study published last year in the British medical journal “The Lancet.” The study (free registration required) concluded that approximately 100,000 Iraqis had died since the beginning of the war.

Although the study did not distinguish between civilian and combatant dead, its estimate was much higher than other numbers that had been posited. Apparently, the major media outlets either ignored the study altogether or gave it very brief mention. According to the report, many pundits attacked the study without even understanding the study’s statistical method.

Also in this episode, an American soldier who served in Iraq is interviewed about his thoughts on Iraqi casualties. For full information about this episode, go to http://www.thislife.org and look in the 2005 archive for episode 300, dated 10/28/05. You can listen to the episode on RealPlayer by clicking here.

Note: The Iraq Body Count Web site is mentioned in the episode.

On Michelle Wie’s Disqualification

On this week’s edition of On the Media, they discussed the controversy surrounding Wie’s disqualification from her first tournament as a pro. Thought it was worth mentioning because it concerns an ethical dilemma faced by a journalist. More on this later.

I’ve also uploaded the photos that I took at the anti-war march in Washington, D.C., last month. You can view them at my Flickr site.

A Year Later Cont.

On a related note, John McCain expressed yesterday his lack of confidence in Donald Rumsfeld. The AP report on it can be seen here.

A Year Later

A year ago Saddam Hussein was captured. It’s hard to believe that a year has gone by since then. I still remember waking up to the news on the radio, it was either a Saturday or Sunday. When I heard Saddam had been captured, I got out of bed and turned on the TV to CNN. They were showing footage of him with his mouth open, being examined by a doctor. It seemed significant then, and I still think his capture was important. I don’t have a journal entry from that day, but I wish I knew whether or not I thought the war would end soon after.

In other news, an NPR reporter interviewed a soldier who had been court-martialed and then dishonorably discharged for “using abandoned vehicles to accomplish a support mission in Kuwait in 2003.” It’s worth a listen, especially if you heard about Rumsfeld being questioned by a soldier about a lack of proper equipment.

I know those of us who work have probably experienced what it’s like to not get support from a supervisor while trying to do our jobs. It angers me that soldiers are risking their lives in Iraq, and the government cannot even provide them with the tools to lower somewhat the risks they have to take. Let’s not pretend that their lives are completely disposable.