Lancet study of Iraqi deaths now thoroughly rebuked

A little more than a year ago, I wrote about the Lancet study and the purposeful and intentional use of it by Religious Leftists to pass on a lie.  I continue to believe that it speaks volumes to their character and integrity.

Via Verum Serum and HotAir comes news that the discrediting has reached new heights:

The British medical journal Lancet published a study of civilian casualties in 2006 that estimated Iraqi civilian deaths at more than 2% of Iraq’s pre-war population, around 655,000.  Later studies produced numbers of less than a quarter of Lancet’s totals, and the authors of the study were largely discredited.  Now a research association has publicly rebuked Gilbert Burnham for not disclosing his methodology, and Burnham may face action from his employer, Johns Hopkins:

In a highly unusual rebuke, the American Association for Public Opinion Research today said the author of a widely debated survey on “excess deaths” in Iraq had violated its code of professional ethics by refusing to disclose details of his work. The author’s institution later disclosed to ABC News that it, too, is investigating the study.

AAPOR, in a statement, said that in an eight-month investigation, Gilbert Burnham, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “repeatedly refused to make public essential facts about his research on civilian deaths in Iraq.”

Hours later, the school itself disclosed its own investigation of the Iraq casualties report “to determine if any violation of the school’s rules or guidelines for the conduct of research occurred.” It said the review “is nearing completion.”

Both AAPOR and the school said they had focused on Burnham’s study, published in the October 2006 issue of the British medical journal the Lancet, reporting an estimated 654,965 “excess deaths” in Iraq as a result of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. An earlier, 2004 report, in which Burnham also participated, estimated approximately 98,000 excess deaths to that point.

In short, Burnham won’t reveal how he arrived at those numbers, which makes his research completely useless.  Scientific studies have to reveal their entire methodology in order for others to attempt to duplicate the study and its results.  Without duplication, results cannot be confirmed, and most scientists reject them — unless they serve political rather than scientific ends

I would love to see at least one Christian progressive apologize for using the numbers.  I'd love to see them confess that they were used by a bankrolled Bush hater. 

I'd also love to see hair on my head and six-pack abs in the mirror.

T'aint gonna happen is it?

Comments

[Sam Diener]

Hello,
More than a year before you wrote this, I cautioned on our blog against using this study's numbers, especially the upper range of those numbers, as too many anti-war activists, as you correctly pointed out, did (see http://new.peaceworkmagazine.org/blog/iraqi-casualties-we-dont-need-exaggerate-protest-reality-tragic-enough).
I'm not a Christian myself, but I work for a progressive largely-Christian organization, the American Friends Service Committee. Who knows, maybe your mirror will surprise you?

[Rick]

Thanks Sam... thanks much.

[Mommynator]

The Society of Friends may not believe in war or taking up arms, but many of their members have put themselves in the front lines and served as medics and other noncombat personnel. For that, I have a great deal of respect for them.

What I don't respect (and I'm not accusing the Friends of this) is the vitriol directed at our service members whose training consists of intense trying not to kill civilians.

However, their job is made almost impossible by the fact that the people they are fighting won't come out and fight like men, they hide behind their women, children and old people so they can lie about our fictitious murderous tendencies. That is neither honest nor honorable, but who gets blamed?

[gsbrown]

Opinion Research Business, January 2008 - the death toll is about 1,000,000. Also, the internally displaced persons toll is above 2,000,000, and the external refugee toll is at least 1,200,000. These are WWII category casualties in the worst hit countries. In addition, the Christian population of Iraq, at least 1,300 yrs old, is broken. The circumstances of women, better in pre-war Iraq than any other Arab country, have been worsened in every respect, as has the educational & health infrastructure. This whole effort was not only the great US strategic mistake, from which we will prolly not recover, but a complex of war crimes from beginning to end.