It is interesting to watch liberals spin what they can in order to make the Iraq war as ugly as possible when they put out a controversial new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates. In a dispatch released by the Associated Press, the timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics." I couldn't agree more.

In the new study, researchers attempted to calculate how many more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. Their conclusion, based on interviews of households and not a body count, is that about 600,000 died from violence, mostly gunfire. They also found a small increase in deaths from other causes like heart disease and cancer.

But of course, we ignore the fact that World War II ultimately killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever greater. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war.

World War II was truly a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated, as soldiers, war workers, or victims of occupation and mass murder.

Of course, the way liberals love to argue they will simply dismiss facts such as these and repeat their diatribe.