Posted by D. Cupples | Move over, flip-floppers. The new trend in the art of informing the public involves zigzagging like the magic bullet that killed JFK. The Bush Administration's messages are: 1) the surge worked, and we're (still) accomplishing the mission in Iraq; and, 2) we need even more tax dollars and still can't withdraw any troops.
Today's Washington Post subtly points out this zigzagging pattern in an article titled "U.S. Cites Drop in Attacks Since Buildup in Iraq; Bombs Kill 20":
"U.S. officials on Sunday declared a 55 percent drop in attacks since the launch of an offensive nine months ago, while bombs across Iraq killed at least 20 people, highlighting the country's continuing security threats.
"The dead included three children who were playing soccer when a roadside bomb exploded at a playground near Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
"Also Sunday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of three soldiers in a suicide attack in Baqubah. Early in the day, a barrage of mortar and rocket fire struck U.S. bases in Baghdad.
"Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a senior U.S. military spokesman, said violence in parts of Iraq had fallen to its lowest levels since summer 2005. Iraqi civilian casualties are down 60 percent since June, and they have dropped 75 percent in Baghdad, Smith said.
"But Sunday's attacks brought a tone of caution.
"'The fight we're up against has not gone away. Today's mortar and rocket attacks demonstrate that the enemy has the capacity to wage violence,' Smith said."
Hasn't the enemy been waging violence since we invaded Iraq in March 2003? Isn't that how we've lost at least 3,871 U.S. military personnel since the war started? Won't the enemy continue waging violence as long as we remain in Iraq? Isn't that what happens in wars? Apparently so.
The Washington Post goes on to list examples of recent violence in Iraq: e.g., a Baghdad base that was hit by 12 rockets on Sunday; a car bomb that killed 6 people in Baghdad's "safest neighborhood" and injured 9; a car bomb in Mosul that killed 3 and injured 12....
Statistics on violence in Iraq are flying around at F-15 speed, but we don't know really know how accurate they are. In September, intelligence analysts and the GAO sharply questioned the military's numbers, partly because of data cherry picking:
"The intelligence community has its own problems with military calculations. Intelligence analysts computing aggregate levels of violence against civilians for the NIE puzzled over how the military designated attacks as combat, sectarian or criminal, according to one senior intelligence official in Washington. 'If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian,' the official said. 'If it went through the front, it's criminal.'" (Washington Post-2)
Two weeks ago, General Joseph Fil said that al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had been (mostly) driven out of Baghdad, i.e., that Iraq is safer and the surge is working. Around the same time, President Bush was still pushing for $190 billion in war funding (because our mission hasn't been accomplished).
Last week, the House passed a bill that would fund the war yet require some level of troop withdrawal; President Bush was "angry" and threatened to veto it (though he also maintains that his strategy in Iraq has worked). All of this zigzagging is a health hazard, occurring with enough speed to cause a serious case of whiplash.
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