AP Reporting The 655,000 Dead Iraqi Study is "Controversial"!

[leftchick]

It will be for the repukes and war cheerleaders still in denial. I find the figure completely plausible.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqi_death_toll

NEW YORK - A controversial new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates.

The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics."

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An accurate count of Iraqi deaths has been difficult to obtain, but one respected group puts its rough estimate at closer to 50,000. And at least one expert was skeptical of the new findings.

"They're almost certainly way too high," said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. He criticized the way the estimate was derived and noted that the results were released shortly before the Nov. 7 election.

"This is not analysis, this is politics," Cordesman said.

.... hmmm now who is Anthony Cordesman? You may have seen him on TV as a national security expert cheering on the invasion from Day one!

<snip>

Anthony Cordesman

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anthony Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, specializing in energy issues, the Middle East and North Africa, defense policy, and terrorism and transnational threats. Cordesman also serves as a national security analyst for ABC News.

Previously, Cordesman served as national security assistant to Senator John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee and in a variety of high level posts within the US Department of Defense, which earned him the Department of Defense's Distinguished Service medal. Cordesman has also been a professor in national security studies at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian. His publications have dealt with a variety of topics, such as energy and defense policy, the lessons of modern war, and threats posed to vital infrastructure by terrorism. He has been featured on a variety of media outlets such as National Public Radio and the Financial Times, due particularly to his expertise concerning the Middle East.

.... if anyone is playing politics I am sure it is Mr. Cordesman!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Cordesman