Military Accused Of 'Cherry-Picking' Data To Claim Drop In Iraq Violence

WP   |  Karen DeYoung   |   September 5, 2007 11:14 PM


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The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends.

Reductions in violence form the centerpiece of the Bush administration's claim that its war strategy is working. In congressional testimony Monday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks. According to senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad, overall attacks in Iraq were down to 960 a week in August, compared with 1,700 a week in June, and civilian casualties had fallen 17 percent between December 2006 and last month. Unofficial Iraqi figures show a similar decrease.

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- Purple Girl See Profile I'm a Fan of Purple Girl permalink

WHAT MORE PROOF DO WE NEED TO OUST THIS ADMINISTRATION?????
Since the DEMs aren't the solution then THEY ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM !!

THE FRIEND OF MY ENEMY IS MY ENEMY.
kepp your friends close, but your enemies closer.

CAVE ADSUM

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:56 AM on 09/07/2007
- outnow See Profile I'm a Fan of outnow permalink

Cherry-picking data is called "propaganda issued by the government." The biggest lie was that the Democrats would stand up to BushCo. They must have caught all Democrats in bed with a dead girl or a young boy. Maybe the Democrats want oil and fascism. too. They don't even have to rig the elections, the Democrats roll over on command.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:48 PM on 09/06/2007
- luckysun See Profile I'm a Fan of luckysun permalink

What??? Bush/Cheney cherry-picked data about Iraq? So they cherry-picked data to get us in to Iraq and now they're cherry-picking data to keep us there. War contracting conglomerates and Big Oil make sure they keep on a-cherry pickin'. But the new and most insidious culprits are the Democratic Congress and the American public in general that are accessories to corporate greed and the military induistrial complex, at the expense of nearly a trillion in tax dollars, nearly 4000 troops, untold dead Iraqis, and our standing worldwide for generations to come. Pat yourself on the back America. You've really elected some effective leaders there. AND in '08 Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul are the FRINGE candidates. Expect more of the same.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:02 PM on 09/06/2007
- Grannysue See Profile I'm a Fan of Grannysue permalink

Hell Bush tell Peteraus, they lost over 58,000 in Vietnam, what's all the bitching about, were only at about 4,000 right now, so we got a long way to go. Lock and Load everyone!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:52 PM on 09/06/2007
- oafishcad See Profile I'm a Fan of oafishcad permalink

Violent acts are not violence. People out of work a long time are not unemployed. Raises in the price of energy, food or housing is not inflation. Pattern?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 04:36 PM on 09/06/2007
- MrBritesnide See Profile I'm a Fan of MrBritesnide permalink

Guys--
Can't you see our paid blogwhore friends are scared? They haven't much time for disinforming you and blaming you for the mistakes of their...um...superiors. It seems all factual data is against them, which is why they male up their own. And as you can see, it's getting wilder and wilder. As we all know, the true haters of the military are the ones that sent them there in the first place. The ones that lied to them about how long they'd be there, the ones that have refused them the equipment and proper tools, not to mention proper care when they were injured and disfigured. It must be great to murder other people's children, then turn around and blame the ones who mourn the deaths, while never giving a thought to the thousands you've killed already. As you Democrats who post here can see, those who prostitute the Repblican agenda are under enormous pressure to crank the lie machine.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:00 PM on 09/06/2007
- factanonverba See Profile I'm a Fan of factanonverba permalink

Cherry-pick or Cheney-pick?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:09 PM on 09/06/2007
- Plowboy See Profile I'm a Fan of Plowboy permalink

Book cooking is an old thing with our leaders. Cheney gained millions personally by having the books cooked while the value of his Halliburton declined. But as VP, he made up for that -- with our tax dollars.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:38 PM on 09/06/2007
- MissFortunate See Profile I'm a Fan of MissFortunate permalink

They're only facts when they support Bush's cause, otherwise it's "fuzzy math".

Why more people aren't taking to the streets with their pots and pans is beyond me.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:29 PM on 09/06/2007
- PaulDonaldson See Profile I'm a Fan of PaulDonaldson permalink

Ron Paul is the only one willing to tell the truth about this war. Well, him and Kucinich...

Mike Huckabee & Ron Paul Debate Iraq
http://beta.redlasso.com/Community/ClipPlayer.aspx?i=c2644597-481a-4d12-a275-3591ec753b19

Ron Paul"s Heated Exchange With Chris Wallace - Iraq
http://beta.redlasso.com/Community/ClipPlayer.aspx?i=bb6bd5c3-94d8-49bf-8445-d4e2ab212ba7

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:15 PM on 09/06/2007
- Blutus See Profile I'm a Fan of Blutus permalink

Amazing footage.

What gets me is Chris Wallace's agenda.

The question about taking orders from
Al Queda show clear up any questions
about the objectivity of the FOX Network.

If I were Paul I would have come around the
podium and stomped Chrissy's guts into
a greasy stain.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:11 PM on 09/06/2007
- Paul See Profile I'm a Fan of Paul permalink

You can't win a war by ignoring the facts. That is why Germany lost WWII - Hitler got whatever he wanted to hear.

Anything less than a cold, hard look at the situation will simply produce more failure.

But I guess that is good enough for Republicans.

Pathetic.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:10 PM on 09/06/2007
- gakabani See Profile I'm a Fan of gakabani permalink

If they cooked the elections they can cook anything they want.

Welcome to the kingdom of George (the Nazi)!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:02 PM on 09/06/2007
- InsurgentRUs See Profile I'm a Fan of InsurgentRUs permalink

Why are conservative republicans not up in arms about the 750 billion plus and counting wasted in a war that never had to happen while OBL runs free as a jaybird or that Saudia Arabia is by far the most radical country in the region? Just think of what that money could have done right here at home! But mention aid to the poor and look out! Here comes the conservatives out in force against helping fellow Americans! What a phony bunch of un-American hypocrites. We took a country that was by far the most westernized secular in the region and turned back the clock a good 50 years! And for what? Just so Bush and his band of drunken frat boys can see how much validity there was in their neocon pie-in-the-sky idiotic idea to bring democracy to a region that cant function that way in the first place! Talk about stupidity in the highest order! And yet the sheeple of the conservative movement continue to parrot the talking points as if they truly believe them....what a sad bunch of delusional fools!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:02 PM on 09/06/2007
- bluesnot See Profile I'm a Fan of bluesnot permalink

The lying Republicans are too busy blaming Democrats. They have no time to clean up the mess they created.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:53 PM on 09/06/2007
- innerpeace See Profile I'm a Fan of innerpeace permalink

LindaMart-are you uneducated or do you just aim your posts at the uneducated?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:55 PM on 09/06/2007
- bascombe See Profile I'm a Fan of bascombe permalink

why do these titles always pretend that facts are mere 'allegations'? there are plenty of reports that verify the cherry-picking was done.

then the left-right partisanship identifications are used to label the sides in a dispute, even in situations in which they do not apply.

this is pathetic, even for huffpo. just tell the truth and tell us you're telling the truth. I am tired of the 'parsed lies'.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:41 PM on 09/06/2007
- lindamart60 See Profile I'm a Fan of lindamart60 permalink

Arianna Huffington does this to keep her liberal posters from fleeing to another anti-military liberal website.

It's that simple.

Many headlines here are not indicative of the content of the story, and in fact, in many cases, the liberals posting on the threads haven't read the stories.

But, that's irrelevant.

As long as they post their hate filled rants.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:10 PM on 09/06/2007
- noamjunior See Profile I'm a Fan of noamjunior permalink

huffpo just links to the articles

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:51 PM on 09/06/2007
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