Jousting with the Lancet: Pajamas Media Interviews Professor Gilbert Burnham
Having read to the bottom of this list, I have not yet seen a substantive stastistical rebuttal. This was an excellent interview by PJM and the statistical methods used are quite standard. The answers were straightforward and focused on methodology.
The important point for skeptics is that only a portion of the deaths reported in this survey are directly attributable to coalition forces. Side-stepping the question of what figure would be acceptable here, what this data is pointing to is an upsurge of unexpected deaths caused by civil unrest.
The figures are not out of the ballpark given the number of deaths reported in the English language media. For every death reported in the news there are many more which go uncovered. We obviously have a powderkeg on our hands and should be focusing more effort on minimizing civilian casualties and restoring civil order. So how?
