Daily Whackjob

…by sticking your head up a bull’s ass, but wouldn’t you rather take the butcher’s word for it?

June 2007 = 1,227
July 2007 = 1,753
August 2007 = 1,773

January to July 2006 = 5,757
January to July 2007 = 13,236.

According to government statistic obtained Friday, the number of Iraqi civilian deaths continues to rise. I don’t think this is what Bush means when he insists that the surge is working. Which is probably why the fact that this increase in civilian death will be absent (read lied about) when the White House gives Gen Petraeus his report to give to Congress later in September.

The denial could come in the classic form of spin, where the military uses some sort of different math than the morgue, hospital and police in Iraq and are reported by officials in the ministries of Health, Defense and the Interior.

Remember when Tommy Franks insisted that, “We don’t do body counts”?

Update: BarbinMD at Kos has a good post on this very topic.

Petraeus told the Australian that there had been a 75 percent reduction in religious and ethnic killing since last year.

from kos:

So where did Gen. Petraeus come up with his number? In all of 2006, there were 16,564 reported (emphasis on reported) civilian deaths, and in the first eight months of 2007, there has been 14,732 deaths. So, civilian deaths are down about 11%…but there are four months left in the year. Or was Gen. Petraeus comparing the same time periods from last year and this year? If that’s the case, in the first 8 months of 2006, there were 8,490 civilian deaths versus the 14,732 in the first 8 months of 2007, which is an increase of nearly 75%.

Frankly, I think Septmber is it. That’s all. It’s over. Republican lawmakers are going to jump ship in droves and begin to call for a drawdown. John Warner has made his voice clear. The Joint Chiefs will begin to get more vocal that the military cannot sustain the surge. And the next war funding bill will be defeated. Of course the political spin-meisters will busily make hay on all sides. But it will be those that show leadership and get us out of this mess as responsibly as possible that exemplify true bravery and allegence to the nation’s best interests.

Just now on Meet The Press, Jim Webb took it to Lindsey Graham for the tired old line that the troops support the Republican president’s failed war policy. Instead, Webb says, they love their country and do not appreciate politicians twisting their dedication into an endorsement of the failed Iraq war.

I’ll post a link to the video when it’s available.

Update: As promised, here’s the video.

Update: Timmeh brought up this very topic today on Meet the Press. Gwen Ifil has the moneyquote:

“Even if it were his presidential ambitions,” said Ifill. “Is that really a good answer that you were so political that you rather focus on politics than focus on the nation’s security?”

Nope, not his marraige problems. I don’t really give a flip about his infidelity. Other’s will surely make a big stink about that, but that’s not something I feel needs to be focused upon. Our nation faces much greater problems.

Only time will tell if the Republican party is stupid enough to nominate Rudy Gulliani to lead their party in the 2008 race for the White House. Apparently Rudy took the idea of a “race” a bit too literally when he decided that it was more advantagous to run out to a fundraiser, rather than serve the nation in a capacity that focused on one of the biggest issues in the election—Iraq.

Giuliani left the Iraq Study Group last May after just two months, walking away from a chance to make up for his lack of foreign policy credentials on the top issue in the 2008 race, the Iraq war.

He cited “previous time commitments” in a letter explaining his decision to quit, and a look at his schedule suggests why — the sessions at times conflicted with Giuliani’s lucrative speaking tour that garnered him $11.4 million in 14 months.

Giuliani failed to show up for a pair of two-day sessions that occurred during his tenure, the sources said — and both times, they conflicted with paid public appearances shown on his recent financial disclosure. Giuliani quit the group during his busiest stretch in 2006, when he gave 20 speeches in a single month that brought in $1.7 million.

Rudy expressed his concern that the Iraq study panel had been tasked with a “truly important mission.” I presume to the future of the nation. But yet he must have found the promise of soaking up huge donations a bit too tasty to pass up. Priorities huh?

You see it’s not about decisive leadership. Or even studying, in-depth the challenges facing the nation. It’s all about the money.