[lit-ideas] Re: The 100,000 casualty figure is bunk
- From: John Wager <john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 23:45:42 -0600
Eric Yost wrote:
Remember the psych article I posted about people not being able to
remember facts that contradict their preconceived notion of reality?
Since people are still touting this 200,000 figure as true, when I
thought everyone knew it was debunked years ago, I'm appending an
article from Slate. . . .
Not quite so fast. There was a radio interview that a National Public
Radio show ("This American Life") did in 2005 (October 28 broadcast) in
which the author of the original study responded to these charges. His
defense of the original data seems quite well reasoned.
(This show also had an interview with one of the Pentagon planners who
"targeted" sites in Iraq to be bombed. I think I already posted a link
to this radio show in that context, because the person interviewed said
that an "acceptable" civilian casualty figure was 30 civilians. That is
to say, if a single bombing mission resulted in FEWER than 30 civilian
deaths, it was approved. If a mission would probably result in 30 or
more deaths, it was not flown. These would hardly be "surgical" strikes.)
The direct link to the Real Audio audio file is here:
http://www.thislife.org/ra/300.ram
The website link with a description of the program is here:
http://www.thislife.org/pages/archives/archive05.html
(Scroll down to "What's in a Number, 10/28, Episode 300.")
The link to purchase a CD-ROM for $13 U.S. with this show on it is here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/webwares/basket.jtmpl?act=addbycode&code=300
--
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"Never attribute to malice that which can be
explained by incompetence and ignorance."
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John Wager john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Lisle, IL, USA
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