In 2004, Les Roberts smuggled himself into Iraq as his own government was in the midst of bombing and occupying the country.

His mission was to find out how many civilians had been killed in the devastating US-led invasion, because Western media was refusing to cover it.

When he published his findings in the Lancet Report, that between 100,000 and 600,000 people had been killed - it was dismissed and scorned. Years later, his estimate has been accepted as true.

Inside Iraq, Roberts witnessed the horrors of America’s indiscriminate bombing campaign, and the terror it inflicted on the people of Iraq, and Iraqi children in particular.

Today, he watches as a similar horror is unleashed on children in Gaza.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since October 7, including more than 15,000 children. 

Many health officials, including Roberts, believe that number is likely conservative, as it doesn’t account for thousands missing or trapped beneath the rubble of their homes, nor those who have died from the spread of disease and famine.

This week on The Big Picture Podcast, we speak with Dr Les Roberts, an epidemiologist and Professor Emeritus at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Dr Roberts spent his career documenting death and disease in conflict zones - including in Rwanda, the Congo and Iraq.

You can read his opinion piece on the accuracy of the death toll in Gaza for Time Magazine here: https://time.com/6909636/gaza-death-toll/

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