PJ Media

I find the bias in most of these discussions, whether from the right or left, to pretty clearly show you can say/claim/assert almost anything in the media and you’ll find plenty of people to argue its merits, pro and con. It does seem however that many of the arguments coming from one of those directions in response to common sense observations are emotional nonsequitors that ignore the point.

Does anyone find the assertion that 80% of all claimed deaths in the sampling were supported by death certificates to be a bit odd? I wonder if you polled a sampling of the U.S. population you would find that 80% of those families who had family members who died, were killed, ran off with the plumber, etc. in the past two years would be able to produce a death certificate, especially on the spur of the moment?

Could it be that When asked by the interviewer if any family members were killed or missing in the past two years, the family might find it convenient to report that young Ahmed was “dead and we have a death certificate to prove it”, rather than say “Well, Ahmed used to live here but he’s off in Falujah killing Americans or whomever.”

How much do death certificates cost and how difficult are they to buy or counterfeit? Does it simplify matters if we have Ahmed’s death certificate rather than have to explain to enquiring police officials where Ahmed is, who he hangs out with, and why he didn’t report for police training as he was ordered. And since Ahmed is only 20 years old it’s probably best if we say he died violently, rather than from natural causes. Absent the age, sex and other details of the sampled population as well as those presummably killed we could as easily be counting the number of insurgents as those killed by all causes.

Sorry, but even for a fence sitter, this one stinks.