655,000 DEATHS. A staggering figure from Johns Hopkins University researchers assessing the number of deaths in Iraq caused, directly or indirectly, by the American invasion. These researchers, who published their findings in the British journal Lancet, are the same ones who did the controversial death count survey in late 2004 that also produced far higher numbers than people had expected. That survey came in for much drubbing from pro-war pundits and even folks like Fred Kaplan. That Kaplan piece seemed persuasive to me when I first read it, but then Daniel Davies eviscerated (twice) most of the lay critiques of the study and I ended up being de-persuaded by Kaplan and more than a bit ashamed at my innumeracy and statistical ignorance. If we see another round of debate about this research team's findings, those two Crooked Timber posts will be worth revisiting.
--Sam Rosenfeld
