[R] iraq statistics - OT

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 5/19/2006 7:54 AM, Gabor Grothendieck wrote:
> I came across this one:
> 
> http://www.nysun.com/article/32787
> 
> which says that the violent death rate in Iraq (which presumably
> includes violent deaths from the war) is lower than the violent
> death rate in major American cities.
> 
> Does anyone have any insights from statistics on how to
> interpret this?

The New York Sun is not a reliable newspaper.  It may be completely 
fabricated, and it seems likely that it is:

The population is 26 million.  The violent death rate quoted there is 
25.71/100000, implying about 6700 deaths per year.  There were about 846 
American deaths in Iraq in 2005.  It doesn't seem credible that there 
were only 8 deaths (from any violent cause) for each American death. 
There's a web site at

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php

(biased in the opposite direction from the Sun) that claims there were 
14000 civilians violently killed  in 2005.  This probably doesn't 
include police or members of the armed forces.

Duncan Murdoch