how poorly we count
to follow up on a previous post here about the bush administrations trouble with counting, today we found out just how bad the counting problem is….
U.S. doubles its count of 2003 terrorism casualties [reuters, june 22, 2004]The administration said international terrorism killed 625 people last year, up from the 307 it reported on April 29 but below 2002’s 725 fatalities. It found 3,646 were wounded last year, above the 1,593 initially cited and the 2,013 in 2002.
3646/1593 = 2.29
625/307 = 2.04
ok, so missing half the fatalities and injuries isn’t as bad as it could be, i guess…
just keep the people that worked on this report away from the election this fall, mmmmmkay?
update (2004.06.24): a handy link to the revisions.