Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

Slow blogging as a result of being away from home. Well now I am back and wanted to point out two things that I have read recently at other blogs.

First is from Tim Blair who comments on the Lancet’s report of some 650,000 Iraqi deaths. He then points to a well done refutation of the estimates over at Iraq Body Cont.

A new study has been released by the Lancet medical journal estimating over 650,000 excess deaths in Iraq. The Iraqi mortality estimates published in the Lancet in October 2006 imply, among other things, that:

1. On average, a thousand Iraqis have been violently killed every single day in the first half of 2006, with less than a tenth of them being noticed by any public surveillance mechanisms;
2. Some 800,000 or more Iraqis suffered blast wounds and other serious conflict-related injuries in the past two years, but less than a tenth of them received any kind of hospital treatment;
3. Over 7% of the entire adult male population of Iraq has already been killed in violence, with no less than 10% in the worst affected areas covering most of central Iraq;
4. Half a million death certificates were received by families which were never officially recorded as having been issued;
5. The Coalition has killed far more Iraqis in the last year than in earlier years containing the initial massive “Shock and Awe” invasion and the major assaults on Falluja.

Interesting, eh? See Blair’s original post for appropriate links for more information.

The second thing I wanted to point out comes from Ace of Spades and his post Border Fences Built To Improve Security! He points out that it is okay to have walls or fences protecting your borders only in certain circumstances:

Countries permitted to build fences/walls to secure their borders:

A) Every country in the world, except for B) and C), below

Countries not permitted to build fences/walls to secure their borders:

B) America

C) Israel

Seems about right.