DNC: Today in Iraq: Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000

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Today in Iraq: The Latest News From the President's War of Choice
Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000

Washington, D.C. - Today the Washington Post highlights a new report that over half a million Iraqi civilian deaths have occurred in Iraq since 2003. This number contradicts previous Bush Administration estimates of 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. Democrats reject President Bush's failed stay-the-course strategy and believe we need a new direction in Iraq that is both tough and smart.

Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000
By David Brown
The Washington Post
October 11, 2006

"A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

"The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

"It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group..."

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