Iraqi Civilian Deaths Top 600,000

The freedom train, get on or get out of the way. The freedom train can't wait for everyone!

(IHT) A team of U.S. and Iraqi public health researchers has estimated that more than 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a UN report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the U.S. invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.

Give or take a few.

UPDATE: Apparently President Bush thinks these numbers are just a guess.