Nov 05 2007

AP Strains To Find Dark Cloud In Surge Successes

Published by at 7:14 am under All General Discussions,Iraq

I noted in this prevoious post the across the board improvements in Iraq due to the Surge and the turning of Iraqis against the butchers of al-Qaeda. But the SurrenderMedia is not about to let some good news get in the way of their biased reporting. In order to hide the successes of the Surge in reducing violence and death in Iraq the AP has had to go to averaging results over the entire year 2007!

With just under two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.

At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year — the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures.

In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the U.S. so far, 850 American troops died. Most were killed in large, conventional battles like the campaign to cleanse Fallujah of Sunni militants in November, and U.S. clashes with Shiite militiamen in the sect’s holy city of Najaf in August.

And of course AP blames The Surge on all these deaths – which is idiotic since The Surge has led to drastically reduced death and carnage. Take this example of a truly bizarre twisting of numbers:

The U.S. troop increase also put pressure on anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who called a formal cease-fire in August. That, it appears, has slashed the number of mutilated bodies discovered on the banks of the Tigris River and other dump sites each day, the apparent victims of sectarian murders.
At least 1,023 Iraqi civilians died in September, but in October, that figure was just 875.

On average, 56 Iraqis — civilians and security forces — have died each day in 2007.

Twenty were killed or found dead on Sunday, including an aide to the finance minister, who was ambushed in Baghdad. Twelve of the deaths were in volatile Diyala province, including an Iraqi soldier, a policeman and an 8-year-old child, all killed separately.

OK, let’s get past the AP’s inability to credit the US strategy for the results, they seem hell-bent on praising Muqtada Sadr instead. But let me compute some apples-to-apples numbers. The yearly Iraqi death average is claimed to be 56 per day. But the AP also gave us numbers for September and October. The daily average for September was 34 deaths per day. The average for October was 30 per day. The big ‘burst’ in violence on Sunday resulted in 20 deaths per day. Anyone other than the AP detect a trend here?

The truth is, for a yearly average to be nearly twice has high as the current monthly and weekly numbers are showing, it means the death rate in early 2007 was well above the average of 56 a day. I don’t have numbers at hand, but to I can estimate what two months in the spring would see inm terms of death reates to offset the September and October numbers. The fact is the monthly rate in the spring would be up near 80 deaths per day. AP knows this, they just decided to play fast and lose with the figures and produce propaganda, not information for their ‘customers’ (I would call people who use AP as an information source ‘victims’ personally). The trend lines are clear, the violence is a third to a quarter the levels it was in the beginning of the year.

I would also remind AP that the deadliest year, and day, for Americans in this fight against al-Qaeda was on 9-11 when we lost nearly 3,000 innocent souls. 3,000 in one day. And now Iraq is rising up against al-Qaeda, hunting them down and allying with the US to build their new democracy. Bit of a change there, for anyone willing to be honest about what is happening. al-Qaeda has killed more Iraqis than anyone except Saddam Hussein. That is another ‘fact’ AP avoids.

There is real reporting going on about Iraq and our success there. Check out this story on how the tide has turned. But expect the predictors of doom in Iraq like the AP to continue to try and shore up their denial. AP had to report on the numbers showing positive trends. Clearly it took them a few days to figure out how to find a Grey Cloud in all that Silver Lining coming out of Iraq. It’s either fudge the numbers like the AP just did or do what the Dems do – and avoid the matter all together! So pathetic. So childish. Did the AP think no one would notice?

9 responses so far

9 Responses to “AP Strains To Find Dark Cloud In Surge Successes”

  1. cali_sun says:

    With the help of the MSM, incl AP, dems strategy to win back the Whitehouse was the ‘Quagmire in Iraq’. That is no longer they case, and they will continue to attempt dems by their snarly bad reporting.

  2. lurker9876 says:

    I just read that Newt is suggesting that we promote the Democrats as the “Party of Corruption”. I think that’s a major mistake.

    The GOP shouldn’t also promote themselves as the “Party of Family Values” either. People don’t realize that they are the ones that vote the good’ns and the bad’ns but those voted in represent the GOP party.

    It’s up to us to make sure we vote the good’ns in and the bad’ns out.

  3. MerlinOS2 says:

    The AP also forgets the numbers were tragically skewed by one very successful double truck bombing of a peaceful obscure religious sect up near the Kurdish Territories. Sure the deaths count as a horrid loss, but it was the largest soft target contributor to the death toll this year.

    The left side is still this morning carrying water for the success of ethnic cleansing and jumped onto the Savior Sadr meme with both feet this morning.

    Some of the posts broke before the AP story even hit..couldn’t be a little message coordination going on there ya think.

    More proof that not just influential papers are in the tank but news services of international reach are getting less careful trying to portray themselves as independent honest brokers of the news.

    But the time the elections heat up the facade may fully fall.

  4. MerlinOS2 says:

    Besides folks dig out your military history books and look at the casualty curves for almost any conflict of size.

    The death rate always climbs just before the end when the weaker enemy throw in everything including the kitchen sink to stave off their impending loss.

    It is also a sign the eventual victor is pushing into close contact with the loser to drive them out of the strong hold locations and put them on the run into areas that they then can be picked of at your leisure with less exposure to yourself and hit isolated pockets with overwhelming force of arms.

  5. MerlinOS2 says:

    Another metric I was reading about in the last couple of days was the fact we have gone several days this week flying our usual close air support roles but have not dropped a single weapon on anyone for a few days.

  6. WWS says:

    you’re absolutely right about the final stages of any way, Merlin – I was imagining an AP headline of the time (of course, a fantasy since the press still supported the US back then) that could read “1945 worst year for civilian casualties yet!”

    especially in Japan – but wars only really end when one side finally runs out of people willing to fight.

  7. Terrye says:

    They have thought this way for so long, they can’t get their heads around the fact that things are different now.

  8. MerlinOS2 says:

    JustOneMinute has a good post up today called Victory Panic.
    Just from the title it shows where they are going and the look at panic in Kos land and a fisk of that and then wrap it all up with commentary from BlackFive showing just why the Sadr ceasefire case is just a bunch of you know what.

  9. MerlinOS2 says:

    Some words from a post by Matt Sanchez who is embedded in Iraq.

    It’s hard to explain the shock I got when I finally got into Iraq. Unlike what I had read in the newspapers, I didn’t find demoralized troops complaining about a dangerous quagmire in Iraq, and believe me, I asked.

    I found men and women who complained because they weren’t allowed to leave the safety of big bases and meet Iraqis. I met Iraqis who trusted American troops more than they trusted their countrymen. I met Iraqi policemen who were risking their lives to fight religious fanatics.

    Sure, there were problems, but I was shocked by how the reality of Iraq was so different from what I had read back home.

    He sums up later with this

    Today, the news from Iraq is increasingly positive – deaths among troops are down by over 70 percent, and Iraqis have largely rejected al-Qaida. But while sectarian violence has plummeted, too many media outlets have stopped reporting on what is, by far, the most defining event of this century.

    A free people need a free press, but through omission, exaggeration, bias and just flat-out deceit, the American public has been taken for a ride – and we will all be paying a price.