The following pertains to
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
What's In a Number?
10/28/05
Episode #300

This episode is about the number, most likely 100,000, of people killed

You can hear this by listening to

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/300.ram (now http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1104 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=300 ) (which is free)
or to
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/webwares/basket.jtmpl?act=addbycode&code=300  (which you will have to pay for)

In Act 1,  minutes 17-23 we learn
How Iraqis had been dying in the Iraq war up to summer 2004 --
Of the deaths which were violent:
2 people died in firefights where it was unclear where the bullet came from
3 were killed by insurgents or Saddam loyalists,
7 died from criminal violence,  carjackings, revenge killings, ...
9 were killed by the American-led coalition

Suggest you continue with minutes 25-32 or so.

Be sure to hear minutes 37:47 to  40:32 to get the last of the
information on the Lancet study.

http://iraqbodycount.net/





About a year ago, a study estimated the number of Iraqi casualties since the war began. It came up with a number – 100,000 dead – that was higher than any other estimate, and was mostly ignored. This week, Alex Blumberg revisits that study to look at the reality behind it. In Act One he reports that not only is the study probably accurate, but it says that most of the deaths were caused by Coalition forces (despite concerted efforts to avoid civilian casualties). In Act Two, we hear U.S. forces trying to cope in the aftermath of some of those deaths.
Prologue. We're a nation at war, but it hardly feels like it. That contrast is especially jarring for people like Hannah Allam, who just returned home to Oklahoma after two years in Baghdad running the Knight-Ridder Newspapers bureau there. Ira talks with Hannah, and Army Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss about what it feels like to come home from a war that nobody's paying much attention to. (6 minutes)
Act One. Truth, Damn Truth, and Statistics. About a year ago, a John Hopkins University study in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated the number of civilian casualties in Iraq. It came up with a number – 100,000 dead – that was higher than any other estimate, and was mostly ignored. This week, Producer Alex Blumberg tells the remarkable story of what it took to find that number, why we should find it credible and why almost no one believed it. (The original Lancet study is online; free registration is required). (36 minutes)
Act Two.