Is Baghdad really safer post-Saddam? Don't be ridiculous.

My contention was made earlier, but I'll repeat for you:

Proposition: The average Iraqi citizen is no better off today -- after three-plus years of American occupation -- than he or she was during 2002.


Care to refute?

Just because Saddam was bad doesn't make what's going on now good.

 

that ridiculous report has been refuted (edited) questioned in numerous places. Including the WaPo you quote from originally

The Hopkins team calculated Iraq's mortality rate in the year before the invasion at 5.5 deaths per 1,000 people, comparing it with their post-invasion average of 13.3 deaths per 1,000 people per year. The difference between these two rates is the rate of "excess deaths;" the deaths occurring from violence is how they get to the 600,000 number.

The entire "context" then, hinges on the validity of the pre-war mortality rate. If you accept this number, then I'm told you accept that pre-war Iraq had a better mortality rate than any other country in the Middle East, even Israel...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/10/600000_iraqis_killed_by_war_cr.html#more

 

The same method was used by the US government following wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The US government's Smart Initiative program is spending millions of dollars teaching NGOs and UN aid workers the same method.

And all the people discrediting the Lancet studies have one thing in common: they support the Bush action in Iraq.

I found two interesting replies by one "B. Kaufmann" on the blog you referenced:

 

ok, I won't ask you to support that theory.

I can just claim all the people who trumpet the findings don't support "the Bush action" in Iraq.

hey, you think Iraq is worse off with Saddam out of power. I think that is an utterly absurd premise.

that's where we are.

 

Actually, B_S (you aptly-named devil you), there is no evidence to support your claim that the premise is absurd.

We can argue that different numbers of people are dying, and for different reasons, but there's no evidence I can see that the average Iraqi's daily live is any improved at all, at least to this point.

You might well believe that their lives will be IMMENSELY better at some point, but that hasn't happened yet.

 

There is no evidence of what you claim. It's all opinion, stats, speculation and numbers that can can twisted and interpreted any way you want.

There may be dozens of reasons for you to be against the Iraq war and what you feel Bush has done.

But I have a difficult time understanding the rationale that Iraq is not markedly improved by the simple fact Saddam is no longer in power.

Sorry but I'm not going to believe a Washington Post columnist with the track record of Shadid.

 

OK ... but are you also saying that you're not going to believe the Iraqis who say things are far worse? And the Iraqis who say they'd rather have the Israelis running their country than the people in charge of it now?

Because it certainly sounds as though when it comes to life in Iraq today, you'd rather believe a bunch of Washington politicians than the people who actually live in Iraq.

 

I'd like to know what "the track record of Shadid" is, besides his last name, that is.
Please show your work, too, namely the important political websites that you're using.

 

I'll forward you my bookmarks for $20. My work is irrelevant to this discussion, as is yours.

 

So the correct answer to the question: "What does 'the track record of Shadid' mean?: is
"Fucked if I know. I pulled it out of my arse."

 

FB, but the newest member of The Children's Crusade apparently knows what your "work" is.

 

did you read this thread? if so you wouldn't need to ask where and what I thought of his columns and his perspective.

do you just sit at home and conduct drive-by attacks in these threads?

I haven't seen a post of yours in 2 weeks that is anything more than name calling bullying. Sarcasm and snarky are so 2005.

Maybe it's time to put on big pants? I know you are beginning to sweat a little on the eve of your big day, shouldn't you be happy and glib?