Estimated 600,000 Iraqi Dead, Needlessly Sacrificed on the Altar of George Bush’s Vanity

Sabrina Tavernise and Donald McNeil Jr, for the NY Times report: A team of American and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here. The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion. But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths. (…) The mortality rate before the American invasion was about 5.5 people per 1,000 per year, the study found. That rate rose to 19.8 deaths per 1,000 people in the year ending in June. update: Think Progress has a video clip from Bush's press conference, in which he says, “I am amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.” Y'know, like, as if it is the Iraqi people -- not him -- who is "tolerating" the violence and deaths.