A frightening report released by The Lancet journal has stated that at estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 that would otherwise still be alive but for the US-led invasion.

The follow up research outlines that since 2004, and especially recently, independent observers have recognised that the security situation in parts of Iraq has deteriorated dramatically.

Their findings corroborate the impression that Iraq is descending into bloodthirsty chaos. Gilbert Burnham and colleagues completed a mortality survey in over 1800 households in Iraq between May and June this year.

The death rate in this sample before the 2003 invasion was 5.5 per 1000 a year, rising to 13.3 per 1000 a year for the entire postinvasion period. Interestingly, the trajectory of the death rate up until September, 2004, closely matched that of their earlier survey. But now the estimated number of excess deaths has increased by an enormous amount.

In the past, Mr Bush has put the civilian death toll in Iraq at 30,000, and hours after details of the latest research were published he dismissed the researchers’ findings “I stand by the figure that a lot of innocent people have lost their life... and that troubles me, and it grieves me,” Mr Bush told reporters.

So much for the US trying to persuade the rest of the world that they are trying to bring peace and liberation to a country.