Say Anything Blog

The number of civilian casualties in Baghdad has dropped by more than half, and only about 60% of the “surge” deployment of troops has actually hit the ground in Iraq, so one wonders who is really visiting the “state of denial.”

In a typical display of Rob’s dishonesty, he cherry-picks one factoid from a decidely mixed report and ignores the parts he doesn’t like:

Outside the capital, however, civilian deaths are up as Sunni and Shi’ite extremists shift their operations to avoid the crackdown.

And the sweeps have taken a heavy toll on U.S. forces: Deaths among American soldiers climbed 21 percent in Baghdad compared with the previous two months.

On Thursday, extremists managed to penetrate the most secure part of the capital — the Green Zone — and launch a suicide attack in the building where the Iraqi parliament meets.

Earlier in the day, a suicide truck bomber heavily damaged a major bridge across the Tigris River, collapsing part of the span into the muddy waters.

Such spectacular attacks may not produce a large number of civilian casualties. But they undermine public confidence — which the U.S. military believes is essential for lasting stability.

But more importantly, the article Rob is using attack to Reid was published BEFORE the recent horrific violence in Baghdad that inspired Reid’s remarks:

FOUR car bombs detonated in a co-ordinated attack have killed more than 190 people in Baghdad in the deadliest attacks in the city since US and Iraqi forces launched a security crackdown aimed at halting the country’s slide into sectarian civil war.

One car bomb alone at a bustling market in the mainly Shiite Sadriya neighbourhood killed 140 people and wounded 150, police have said.

“The street was transformed into a swimming pool of blood,” said Ahmed Hameed, a shopkeeper near the scene.

Among the other attacks to have struck the capital, police have said a suicide car bomber killed 35 people and wounded more than 70 at a checkpoint in Sadr City, stronghold of the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

To claim that “the surge” is working is akin to claiming that the insurgency is “in its last throes”.