Reid: One Meeeeelyun Deaths

Harry Reid is now on record as claiming as “Truth”, the dubious statistic of a million Iraqi deaths since the beginning of the war. It seems that bad news is good news for the majority leader.

In an interview with Reno Gazette Journal reporter Anjeanette Damon, Reid shows just how desperate to lose the war he has become.

Q: You disagree with the assessment President Bush and Gen. Petraeus put forth this week. How do you think the course should be changed?

A: All you have to do is look at what they said. Nothing has changed since the surge started. Today, now we learn that 1 million Iraqis have been killed since the war started. A million. That’s pretty hard to comprehend….

“That’s pretty hard to comprehend…”

I’ll agree with Reid on that last point. Besides being almost twice the number of last year’s discredited and debunked Lancet study, the source of Reid’s assertion appears not to be the result of any type of study, but rather a poll taken by a UK opinion research company.

From the poll assumptions:

Q: How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003 (ie as a result of violence rather than a natural death such as old age)? Please note that I mean those who were actually living under your roof.

None 78%

One 16%

Two 5%

Three 1%

Four or more 0.002%

Given that from the 2005 census there are a total of 4,050,597 households this data suggests a total of 1,220,580 deaths since the invasion in 2003.

Well, is the poll suggesting this, or as Reid asserts, stating a fact?

The poll data uses a simple extrapolation to arrive at the total of more than a million deaths.

Here’s a question that probably wasn’t asked, “Where are the bodies?”

Another poll from the same polling company says that regardless of the ongoing hardship and bloodshed, ” Iraqis still prefer the current regime to that of Saddam Hussein two to one.”

And, since Harry Reid seems to be enthralled with poll numbers, here is one that he should be paying attention to, instead of spending so much time carrying water for Moveon.org.