The wide range of numbers of deaths attributed to the war in Iraq (as also earlier to the sanctions) can lead one to wonder whether the numbers are being cooked by one side or the other, to overstate or to understate the casualties. Northwestern University law professor James Lindgren, a careful empiricist, has an enlightening comparison of the death tolls at the Volokh Conspiracy. (The tolls for the sanctions are much more controversial, as were accounts of what caused them. Much of the increase in the death rate was attributable to the general “wealthier is healthier” phenomenon; sanctions make a society less wealthy. In any case, it’s clear that the sanctions inflicted tremendous harm on the Iraqi population and very little on the rulers, other than the considerable damage they did to their ability to wage war.)