iraqichildren.jpgBecause the entry direction of the fatal wound makes all the difference to the parents of an Iraqi child who has been killed, doesn’t it?  Via the WaPo:

…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.”

“Depending on which numbers you pick,” he said, “you get a different outcome.” Analysts found “trend lines . . . going in different directions” compared with previous years, when numbers in different categories varied widely but trended in the same direction. “It began to look like spaghetti.”

Among the most worrisome trends cited by the NIE was escalating warfare between rival Shiite militias in southern Iraq that has consumed the port city of Basra and resulted last month in the assassination of two southern provincial governors. According to a spokesman for the Baghdad headquarters of the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), those attacks are not included in the military’s statistics. “Given a lack of capability to accurately track Shiite-on-Shiite and Sunni-on-Sunni violence, except in certain instances,” the spokesman said, “we do not track this data to any significant degree.”…  (emphasis mine)

Lying about the numbers doesn’t make the Iraqi occupation any less a failure.  But, as a simple reminder, lying to Congress is a crime.  Emptywheel has much more.  As Atrios said this morning, it’s a “faith based occupation.”  Well, last I checked, the Lord told Moses that bearing false witness a sin…

Speaking of which, AJ at Americablog highlights a must read piece in Washington Monthly on the hyping of al qaeda in Iraq.  When I say must read, I mean it.  But don’t take my word for it, here’s AJ:

The author actually talked to regional and intelligence experts — not to be confused with “political” or “military” commentators — including names you probably recognize, like Juan Cole, Pat Lang, and Larry Johnson, as well as some you won’t but should, like Malcolm Nance, a twenty-year intelligence veteran and Arabic speaker. Nance is also the author of The Terrorists of Iraq, which is easily the best book written on the Iraq insurgency and a must-read for anybody seriously interested in the issue.

The size and impact of al Qaeda in Iraq is hugely overblown by the media, elected figures, and military officials. Further, and perhaps even more importantly, its purported strength is essentially the only security-related reason claimed by the administration for maintaining our occupation. Political manipulation by government and military leaders — combined with a lack of knowledge of situational specifics on the part of commentators and the public — results in a profound general misunderstanding of the facts on the ground.

Amazing how much better the reporting can be when you ask the follow-up questions and talk to a variety of people instead of providing steno service, isn’t it?  How many more of America’s soldiers and how many more innocent Iraqis will be killed in the crossfire for George Bush’s ego? How many more?

(Photo of Iraqi children via adamhenning.)

Related posts:

  1. Torture: Obama Heeded Maliki on Abuse Photos, Says McClatchy; What That Says for Our Occupation
  2. About Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s Lies
  3. The End of the Delusion in Iraq
  4. More CIA Lies about Torture Briefings
  5. Demagoguing Fort Hood, Hoekstra Adds to List of Lies