Uh, Just Asking

Does it matter to the pols running for prez? Does it matter to the people voting for the pols. Let's see whether the latest estimate of the civilian death toll in Iraq makes the agenda. Doubtful. Why should it? It's old news. It's all about the first three years of the war. We're well past that. We're going on ... what? ... five years? Besides, the number of the dead -- 151,000 between 2003 and 2006, according to the World Health Organization -- doesn't even come close to the 655,000 estimated earlier by researchers from Johns Hopkins. Yes, the numbers are all over the lot, depending on the source and methodology. Here's a count of documented deaths based on actual reports, not on estimates. As of today, it's only 80,419 to 87,834. Ahhh ... whatever.