Recent research into the Dresden bombing of 1945 puts the death toll at around 25,000. A final report should be available next year and will, hopefully, prove fascinating in terms of the ways in which this figure has been determined.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26977893/
However this research is received it will, no doubt, highlight the difficulties in quantifying historical events, difficulties that are all too readily exploited and high jacked by special interests. Whether or not it will settle the issue remains to be seen. I recall the research into Iraqi deaths, post invasion, which I thought followed a laudable protocol (given the circumstances) and yet it was met with a barrage of outraged incredulity.
If we cannot, with confidence, determine the arithmetic of recent events then how are we supposed to respond to numbers tossed around in history books?
The numbers game
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Minimalist
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I already dismiss numbers tossed around in ancient texts. Usually more propaganda than reality.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin