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Progress in Iraq
Damn, so THIS is what progress in Iraq looks like. This whole time the majority American public, the Dems., the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the rest of the world, the Iraq Study Group, and anyone who's have conscious thought things were going in the wrong direction in Iraq.
But thanks to both our fearless leader and the Iraqi government, they are making assurances to the contrary. How, you ask?
By simply covering up the icky stuff:
| quote: | Iraq to bar press from blast scenes
Iraq's interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and camera operators from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said on Sunday (local time).
His announcement was the latest in a series of attempts to curtail press coverage of the ongoing conflict, which has already attracted criticism from international human rights bodies.
"There are many reasons for this prohibition," he said.
"We do not want evidence to be disturbed before the arrival of detectives, the ministry must respect human rights and does not want to expose victims and does not want to give terrorists information that they achieved their goals.
"This decision does not imply a curtailment of press freedom, it is a measure followed all over the world."
International and local media coverage of Iraq's deadly sectarian conflict generates dozens of images and reports of carnage every day, as insurgent bomb attacks continue.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitem...05/s1921675.htm |
Now you see, we can't claim death, destruction, and chaos anymore because, well,
HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?
Ain't that great? Because if ya can't see it you antiAmerican traitors, it ain't happenin'! Ya think it's going on? Prove it! You can't? Well then it ain't happenin' then, is it? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
(*snort*, *snort*, *snort*)
Oh goodness. My side hurts!
But wait, it doesn't stop there! Because our new purple-fingered, fully democracized death-squad Iraqi government has made sure to cover all the bases, folks! Don't even THINK for a second that they've stopped there. Because even if we can't photograph and report on the spot for empirical evidence the death and destruction that occurred, well there's still a way to count the dead, because the Iraqi government has released the figures of the deceased this whole time........
....until now:
| quote: | Iraq refuses to provide civilian casualty figures to U.N.
Numbers from government employees indicate that 5,509 died in Baghdad in the first three months of 2007.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government has refused to provide the United Nations with civilian casualty figures for its latest report on the hardships facing Iraqis, the U.N. said Wednesday, but numbers from various ministries indicate that more than 5,500 people died in the Baghdad area alone in the first three months of this year.
The numbers, provided to The Times by employees in government ministries, could not be independently verified but were higher than those in an independent nationwide civilian death count based on news accounts. Numbers provided by employees of ministries also appear to indicate an increase in Baghdad civilian deaths in recent weeks after an ebb when a new security plan was launched in February.
At a news conference to unveil the United Nations' report, spokesman Said Arikat said no "official" reason had been given by the government for not issuing casualty figures. But Ivana Vuco, a U.N. human rights officer, said government officials had made it clear during discussions that they believed releasing high casualty numbers would make it harder for the government to quell unrest.
"We were told they were concerned that people would misconstrue the figures to portray the situation very negatively, and that would further undermine their efforts to establish some kind of stability and security in the country," Vuco said, adding, "These are, in a way … legitimate reasons.
"However, we are trying to stress our point of view, which is that transparency is the key to establishing security."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...-home-headlines |
Now WAIT, stop right there. I know what you're thinkin'. I do. You're thinkin' Bush ain't gonna sit there and let the Iraqi government have all the fun on its own, right?
Well you're damn darn tootin' right he ain't! Go grab yurself another Texas Shiner Bock coldie for yurself for guessin' that right, bub!:
| quote: | U.S. officials exclude car bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence
By Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.
Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
President Bush explained why in a television interview on Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose.
Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population - one of the surge's main goals.
"Since the administration keeps saying that failure is not an option, they are redefining success in a way that suits them," said James Denselow, an Iraq specialist at London-based Chatham House, a foreign policy think tank.
Bush administration officials have pointed to a dramatic decline in one category of deaths - the bodies dumped daily in Baghdad streets, which officials call sectarian murders - as evidence that the security plan is working. Bush said this week that that number had declined by 50 percent, a number confirmed by statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers.
But the number of people killed in explosive attacks is rising, the same statistics show - up from 323 in March, the first full month of the security plan, to 365 through April 24.
Overall, statistics indicate that the number of violent deaths has declined significantly since December, when 1,391 people died in Baghdad, either executed and found dead on the street or killed by bomb blasts. That number was 796 in March and 691 through April 24.
Nearly all of that decline, however, can be attributed to a drop in executions, most of which were blamed on Shiite Muslim militias aligned with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Much of the decline occurred before the security plan began on Feb. 15, and since then radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Mahdi Army militia to stand down.
According to the statistics, which McClatchy reporters in Baghdad compile daily from Iraqi police reports, 1,030 bodies were found in December. In January, that number declined 32 percent, to 699. It declined to 596 February and again to 473 in March.
Deaths from car bombings and improvised explosive devices, however, increased from 361 in December to a peak of 520 in February before dropping to 323 in March.
In that same period, the number of bombings has increased, as well. In December, there were 65 explosive attacks. That number was unchanged in January, but it rose to 72 in February, 74 in March and 81 through April 24.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwas.../printstory.jsp |
Now I don't know about you, but all these traitorous bastards mentioned above who opposed this war need to think REAL HARD about their own personal sins, and they need to repent of their disbelief in our fearless neocon leaders as well as the lovely progress that's TRULY occurring in Iraq right now. You should NEVER doubt our fearless leader again. They know what they're doin', dammit.
And if they don't know what they're doin', well hell, they'll just fake it! But you won't know the difference 'cause they won't be reportin' the icky stuff anymore. So grab your flag, wrap yourself up real tight, and give high praise to Gawd and His Right Hand Man, our dear Dubya.
___________________
Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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