Everything's going so well in Iraq

kevin drum compiles a few stats from the brookings institution iraq index... brookings, btw, is where michael o'hanlon and kenneth pollack, shameless bush surge defenders, work... (see here and here...)

Violence Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Iraqi Military and Police Killed	349	429	Up 23%
Multiple Fatality Bombings	110	82	Down 25%
# Killed in Mult. Fatality Bombings	885	1,053	Up 19%
Iraqi Civilians Killed (All violent causes)	6,739	5,300	Hard to say1
U.S. Troop Fatalities	104	187	Up 80%
U.S. Troops Wounded	983	1,423	Up 45%
Size of Insurgency	20,000+	~70,0002	Up ~250%
Attacks on Oil and Gas Pipelines	8	143	Up 75%

¹Methodology changed dramatically between 2006 and 2007, so numbers are highly suspect.
²Number is for March 2007.
³Numbers are for June only. No July numbers are available.

Infrastructure Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Diesel Fuel Available	26.7 Ml	20.7 Ml	Down 22%
Kerosene Available	7.08 Ml	6.3 Ml	Down 11%
Gasoline Available	29.4 Ml	22.2 Ml	Down 24%
LPG Available	4,936 tons	4,932 tons	Down 0.1%
Electricity Generated	8,800 Mwatts	8,420 Mwatts	Down 4%
Hours Electricity Per Day	11.7	10.14	Down ~14%

⁴No numbers available for June/July. Figure is extrapolated from May and August numbers.

things are going smashingly well, i'd say...

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The propaganda blitz convincing us that the situation in Iraq is improving and even "winnable"

related to my post yesterday on o'hanlon and pollack, think progress offers us this...

Pollack and O’Hanlon have leapt into the open arms of the mainstream media and have been given a forum to present their views largely without opposition. Together, they appeared on at least nine major mainstream media outlets in the past 24 hours.

A list of their media appearances:

	Network	Program
Pollack	CBS	Evening News
	CNN	Newsroom
	CNN	Situation Room
	MSNBC	Tucker
	NPR	Talk of the Nation
O’Hanlon	CBS	Early Show
	CBS	Evening News
	Fox News	Special Report
	MSNBC	Hardball

anyone who has any doubts whatsoever that we are being propagandized by our major media outlets only need look at the pervasiveness of these two in such a condensed period of time… for one thing, you KNOW that number of appearances HAD to be both scheduled AND coordinated WELL IN ADVANCE, and that two guys that have neither the big names nor the position power to command such a slice of media time simply could NOT have done it all by themselves... when are we going to wake up...?

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More shameless Bush defenders

today is an embarrassment, not of riches, but of fresh, steaming, 100%, grade A bullshit... not only do we have two shills, writing under the cover of their exalted positions at the brookings institution, pushing this sorry thesis in - where else? - the wapo...


Twin Yay-hoos, O'Hanlon and Pollack

A War We Just Might Win

By MICHAEL E. O’HANLON and KENNETH M. POLLACK
Published: July 30, 2007

we also have THIS yay-hoo, writing in bloomberg, who, were it not for the tipoff given by his email (khassett@aei.org) would be otherwise unidentified as the director of economic and policy studies at the american enterprise institute...


Yay-hoo Hassett

If you want a wretched sight, look at the political speech of the leading Democratic candidates. President George W. Bush has, to put it lightly, made numerous mistakes. But he isn't Satan. You would hardly know it if you listen to the Democrats.

my GOD, it's SO-O-O_OO tiresome having this kind of crap, passing as intelligent, informed, and, yes, ACADEMIC opinion, taking up printers' ink, bandwidth and pixels, cluttering up otherwise valuable media space...

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