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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, May 24, 2007

The data begins to show a "surge" failure

Yesterday I noted that it appeared the Bush administration and military command structure were exploring alternatives to "the surge" in a seeming admission that the strategy for Iraq we were "giving a chance" is not working.

Today, we have a little more data to back up that impression.

The WaPo has a frontpager pointing out that sectarian deaths are once again on the rise in Baghdad, although it doesn't really offer the critical analysis of where it's happening.

Also today, McClatchy has an analysis of its own data that shows a broader return of violence in Baghdad.
Statistics on the numbers of car bombs, roadside bombs, people wounded and people killed show that May is likely to be the bloodiest month so far this year. The number of anonymous bodies found on Baghdad's streets, victims of what U.S. officials call sectarian murders, is averaging 22.5 a day, up nearly 50 percent from April and March and equal to the rate in January, before the troop buildup began.

UPI also has it's own (always stilted) way of analyzing at US casualties.

4 Comments:

  • Well we're obviously on the right track. Things are going swimmingly. I feel so much safer then when we had that anti-sectarian Saddam pinned in a box. Boy, we're sure putting a crimp in Osama's recruitment efforts. People be just looooovin' us over there. Let's keep doing what we're doing...

    I feel sick. No, really, I'm a little queasy just thinking about what chaos we've wrought -- that congress won't stop -- and the violent, hate-filled, insecure world my children and grandchildren will live in... Not just because of what a despotic American president did, but because otherwise good people chose to do nothing to stop it.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:11 AM  

  • I hope you didn't see or read Bush press conference today. I'll probably post when the transcript comes up, but when asked about Al Qaeda being stronger because of the Iraq invasion, he responded "Do you want Saddam still in power?

    Frightening.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:39 AM  

  • Yes. I want Saddam back in power and in his box, and Osama dead. Saddam was an egomaniac that could be dealt with. Osama is on a mission from God, and we all know how impossible it is to deal with a man on a Crusade...

    No. I didn't see the presser. I know my limitations and one of them is that I can't watch Bush at a live presser without being thrown into a rage. I have to ease into it; first reading snippets, then video clips in small doses.

    By Blogger -epm, at 12:21 PM  

  • Oh, and this one would have put you over the top. I was just sitting there picking apart almost every line for its distance from reality.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:27 PM  

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