Twister

- as in high-speed spin. That's how I take the latest commentary from Gen. Patreus, when he said that: ...there had been a 75 percent reduction in religious and ethnic killing since last year. Now, I have read numerous reports regarding killing in Iraq from every different source that chooses to report this, and I have yet to see an analysis that shows a 75% reduction. The article linked here does some analysis that would suggest that this data does not exist. If we are to give the general every benefit of the doubt, however, this statement could mean that there has been a 75% reduction in Australian people being killed since last year - since this quote was published in the Australian media. If that's true, however, then that statistic has almost no meaning, given that Australian troops make up less than 1% of the force in Iraq (1,500 Australian troops). For the sake of discussion, we can compare casualties between 2006 and 2007 by month: 8-2007 77 8-2006 65 7-2007 79 7-2006 43 6-2007 101 6-2006 61 5-2007 126 5-2006 69 4-2007 104 4-2006 76 3-2007 81 3-2006 31 2-2007 81 2-2006 55 1-2007 83 1-2006 62 Source: Icasualities.org If you can't see the 75% reduction here, well ... you're not alone. Maybe there's a better explanation, like this chart of the "official" figures reported by the Pentagon (if the chart doesn't make any sense to you - it sure doesn't to me - maybe that alone should tell us something): Now, I am told that this chart shows that things are getting better in Iraq, and that there are fewer deaths occurring more recently. However, this explanation (from IraqSlogger) of the data leaves one more disappointed than ever: Abnormality A: Between August and November 2006, DOD started reclassifying “casualties” as “deaths by execution” and suddenly you see a dramatic drop in killings. For example, in March 2006 right after the Samarra Mosque bombings you go from 1,750 “casualties” to 750 “deaths by execution.” Between November 2006 and March 2007 “Deaths by Execution” becomes “Sectarian Murders” but the numbers remain the same. Abnormality B: Between the March 2007 report and the June 2007 report there was a dramatic change in the number of killings that were reported for the second half of 2006. In both cases the numbers were described as “sectarian murders.” The impact here is that it makes the “pre surge” situation look extraordinarily dire and therefore signals progress thereafter. Abnormality C: Somehow the reclassification that occurred between the March and June 2007 reports caused the violence numbers in April and May of 2006 to drop dramatically. This was in the months following the Sammara bombings in February 2006 when sectarian violence was escalating." Basically, categorize death in such a way as to get the result you want. If this spin continues, and the Democratic Congress refuses to do anything about it, we can be more sure than ever that "by the people, for the people" has long since died in America, along with thousands of our citizens in service.