The bogus "100K dead Iraqis" figure refuses to die

Last year, the Lancet reported that a study estimated that the military action in Iraq has resulted in the deaths of 100,000 Iraqi citizens. That number was picked up by the liberals and has been used as an anti-Bush mantra ever since. The problem is that the estimate has been debunked as an ridiculously soft number. What the study actually said was that the researchers felt with ninty-some percent certainty that the number of dead fell somewhere between a couple thousand and a couple hundred thousand. That's quite the point spread! The 100K figure was chosen for no real reason and there is no proof that it is true. (Alternatively, there is more than sufficient proof in countless mass graves of Saddam's massive slaughter of the Iraqi people.) It was nothing more than a guess. In fact, it would have been just as "reasonable" to use the lowest estimate, the highest, or any number in between. These facts don't stop liberals from using the 100K figure, though.