According to the New York Times, John Hopkins has completed a study in which they estimate that 600,000 people have died as a result of the war in Iraq. The methodology used in this study makes it meaningless, as they included natural deaths (like heart attacks), accidental deaths (like car accidents), and criminal deaths (like homicides) in the numbers. Why not just throw in deaths on US soil, too? We're in the war, too, so if Bush causes heart attacks in Iraq, isn't he also responsible for heart attacks in the US?

I made this point to a friend of mine who is very anti-Bush. She responded by attacking my character and saying I had blinders on, when she is the one spouting 600,000 dead Iraqis and believing it without even examining it further. I won't deny a lot of people have died as a result of this war, but including natural deaths in a study like this does nothing except make people distrust studies.