Will you believe the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), the CIA, the National Intelligency Estimate (NIE) and the Defense Intelligence Agency OR the Administration and it's senior officers in Baghdad, who say that reductions in violence proves that their war strategy is working.
The GAO, CIA, NIE, DIA along with the Washington Post, the Associated Press and the New York Times all call the military's findings into question.
Watch Gen. David Petraeus say that sectarian deaths are down 75% since the beginning of the 'surge' so that we stay for another 10 years. To get that 75%, they are cherry-picking facts and re-writing reports and using misleading data to claim progress, rather than show the facts that the escalation is not working.
While being the bloodiest summer for American troops running at double the pace of last year, Iraqi sectarian violence is also doubling in the north as people leave Baghdad.
As for counting Iraqi deaths, they are only counting if someone is shot in the back of the head, not in the front of the head. They are not counting deaths by car bombs or Shiite-on-Shiite and Sunni-on-Sunni violence, except in certain instances.
The AP counted 1,809 civilian deaths in August, making it the highest monthly total this year. This year Iraq has double the war-related deaths over last year. Daily totals were 33 in 2006, they are 62 so far this year. The number of displaced Iraqis civilians has more than doubled from 447,337 on Jan 1st to 1.14 million on July 31st.
More Figures: It's interesting the way the administration and the U.S. press have moved from using the words 'insurgents', 'Shiite' and 'Sunni' to 'Al Qaeda foreign fighters'. We are continuously told that Al Qaeda and Iran are doing all the killing.
The Center of Strategic International Studies (CSIS) and some less partisan press say that while foreign fighters may stoke the insurgency flames, they make up only about 4% to 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents.
Ned Parker of the LA Times reports that of 19,000 "insurgents" held by the US military in Iraq, only 135 are foreigners. That's less than 1%. Parker also says they aren't from Shiite Iran either. He says 45% are from our friend Saudi Arabia, 15% from Syria and Lebanon, (mostly Sunni), and 10% from Sunni North Africa. With these figures, given by a U.S. officer in Iraq, it looks like either Al Qaeda or Iran would have a hard time taking over Iraq.
florencev
43 Comments
revisionists of history
yep this is an art form that the bush administration excels at
its sad that people keep on believing that bullshit
This past summer has been the deadliest for American soldiers serving in Iraq. Course we never talk about the collateral damage that is the Iraqi civilians.
Seeing as the Administration refuses to move the U.S. of oil and on to alternative energy, we will keep having to fight wars for oil.
The Administration are trying to have us believe that it isn't the Iraqi Shiia Muslims killing Iraqi Sunni Muslims, but that it is Sunni Al Qaeda and Shiia Iran who are doing all the killing and that they are working together, which is ridiculous. This is so that they can make us believe that we should bomb Iran and believe that somehow Bin Laden is in Iraq and is planning to take over the U.S.
Are you working on alternatives? What is 'this adiministration' supposed to do, what has 'any administration' done?
I'm sure all of us Right Wing Nutjobs just can't wait to see our friends being killed in Iran, it would bring back memories of the good ole summer of '79, and then how about 1983? Iran has done nothing but forward their agenda of repression in that time, and of course, since the bad guys of our government say Iranians are involved in the instability in Iraq it is nothing but lies? I sure hope the administration you and your believers elect solve all of these problems right away, I expect nothing less. Who are those people anyhow? Where are these ideas?
WE don't have a chance of getting the truth out as the media is owned by the same corporations that are making a fortune selling ammunitions for the war.
Anything else = Right Wing Nut
C'mon Starman, you know the drill.
I hope you are watching C-Span right now, or will you instead watch the filtered MSNBC version of things?
How do we rebuild Iraq, so that the people can go back to work. We now have 'insurgents' who used to be barbers, clerks, secretaries, shoe makers. They are out of work. They are angry. They are hungry, their children are hungry.
We took apart an independent nation. We got rid of their constitution and brought in Flat Taxes and Free Markets. This enabled Texas corporations to get all the contracts instead of offering work to the Iraqis. U.S. companies brought in people from Sri Lanka and the Phillipines to do the work at cheaper rates than the Iraqis could work. They are importing things from China to sell in the bazaars so that there is less work for the Iraqis to do.
Army's kill people and break things.
Marshall Plans, re-build the civil infrastructure of a county. The streets, the water, the electricity. Our Free Market U.S. companies are doing it on the cheap. It bring money back to the U.S., it doesn't help Iraq build itself.
It's not about escalation, it's about engineers, surveyors, teachers, doctors, city planners.
They don't need an oil sharing plan that gives most of the profit to International Oil Companies, rather than the Iraqi people.
Don't just shout at me. Let's have a REAL conversation.
I don't know how building back the infrastructure of a country is 'a very small defined way'. What is your plan to sort this out? If you are happy with what this administration is doing, explain to me what their long term plan for the area is?
Please define your reality. It is easy to pop out a quick retort. But unless we are going to define the problems that are facing us, we are just going to end up prolonging this mess.
As to our soldiers. Our soldiers need more than talk. They need more money for up-armored vehicles, for body armor. They need to see decent pay, not to see private Blackwater military paid way more than them for doing the same job. They need to see a fully funded VA when they get home. They need to be supported financially so that they don't end up on the street or in distressed marriages.
Where are you getting your unfiltered version apart from C-Span. C-Span is unfiltered, but there are even differing opinions on it. Are you open to hearing both sides?
This article you posted is much inline with the sentiment of the Move on add, far past reprehensible.
you have more patience then i do.
It is my understanding that around 1812 the White House was burned down by the British, but Dolly Madison did show fear, that there were indeed shells that fell on CA, OR and WA in the second world war. That we have been attacked on this land a number of times, but the American people didn't fall into fear.
In the UK, when the IRA were bombing, in Bali, when they were bombing, in Germany when they were bombing, etc etc, those countries didn't give up their freedoms. They treated the 'evil doers' as criminals and didn't terrify their people with 'wars on terror'.
What a great way to keep us in constant fear and undermine our freedoms.
im glad you still post at woyano.
have you heard from dr fallon? do you think he will return?
the pieces he wrote on here were some of my favorite, i miss him!
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)