Here are two disturbing pieces from DemocracyNow.org:

The Co-Author of a Medical Study is estimating that 650,000 people have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion. The study was conducted by American and Iraqi researchers and published in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet. This link goes to an interview (video or written transcript) with a co-author of the study, epidemiologist Les Roberts. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

So, I think we used a very standard method. I think our results are couched appropriately in the relative imprecision of [inaudible]. It could conceivably be as few as 400,000 deaths. So we’re upfront about that. We don’t know the exact number. We just know the range, and we’re very, very confident about both the method and the results.

If this study is accurate, it means that 2.5% of Iraqis have been killed as a result of the post-invasion violence.  To illustrate, assume that you live in a city of one million people and that 25,000 of them were killed  (untold others wounded).  What effect would that have on your city?  What if you were being told by politicians that all of this killing was for a good cause?

DemocracyNow.org also is reporting that  newly released documents reveal that more than 150,000 soldiers who left the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have been at least partly disabled as a result of service – this translates to one in four veterans. What’s more, it appears the Department of Veterans’ Affairs was trying to hide the figures. We speak with Paul Sullivan of Veterans for America.