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Observations on the world today.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Beware the Jub-jub Bird 

Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq
President says some U.S. troops could be sent home if security improves
AL-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - President Bush, after hearing from top U.S. and Iraqi leaders, said Monday that some U.S. troops could be sent home if security conditions across Iraq continue to improve as they have in this former hotbed of Sunni insurgency.

But the president, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.
Neither did he say what he means by "continue to improve as they have" since - you know - they HAVEN'T.

This is just a ploy to make us buy into the idea that the surge is working.

Consider the following:
Bombings, sectarian slayings and other violence related to the war killed at least 1,773 Iraqi civilians in August, the second month in a row that civilian deaths have risen, according to government figures obtained Friday.

In July, the civilian death toll was 1,753, and in June it was 1,227. The numbers are based on morgue, hospital and police records and come from officials in the ministries of Health, Defense and the Interior. The statistics appear to indicate that President Bush's increase in troops this year has done little to rein in civilian bloodshed, despite U.S. military statements to the contrary.
Here's the deal. The benchmarks have NOT been met. Violence CONTINUES to escalate across Iraq. Faith in the Iraqi government is slackening.

And the "liberal" MSM is complicit:
Summary: CNN's Christine Romans repeatedly claimed that American troop deaths in Iraq "are down this summer" and also reported that "[t]he Pentagon today is citing the surge in Iraq as a reason for a drop in troop deaths this summer." However, statistics compiled by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count show that the 260 U.S. troop deaths in Iraq during June, July, and August 2007 make this the deadliest June-August of the Iraq war for U.S. troops.

On the August 30 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, guest host Christine Romans repeatedly claimed that American troop deaths in Iraq "are down this summer." Romans also reported that "[t]he Pentagon today is citing the surge in Iraq as a reason for a drop in troop deaths this summer," by comparing casualty figures in July and August to those in May and later asked if lower American casualty figures were a measure of the success of the "surge." However, as Media Matters for America documented, statistics compiled by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count on its website iCasualties.org show that the 260 U.S. troop deaths in Iraq during June, July, and August 2007 make this the deadliest June through August of the Iraq war for U.S. troops.
Look, if this summer is the worst summer yet for US military deaths, saying that deaths are down because the number is lower than what it was at the end of spring is a LIE.

Deaths in Spring - at the BEGINNING of the surge - were up. They are still UP. They may be less up, but they are not NOT NOT down.

What we are probably going to get from Patraeus and the white house is a white wash or series of intentional misdirections. We'll be told that sectarian attacks are down with no mention of the FACT that the attacks are actually becomming more effective in that more people are dying. We'll be told that the Sunnis are routing al Qaeda, etc with no mention of the Shia. And all of this will be true according to a very narrow definition of certain well chosen terms. But the over all picture will be blurred to the point that one can only call it an intentional obfuscation - which means a lie.

Liars!

UPDATE Sept. 4: GAO link added.

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