Some distinguished former ambassadors, law professors, foundation heads, and others have sent a letter to Congressional leaders -- coinciding with the GAO negative report -- asking that Congress find out what (the hell kind of screwball) statistics the administration is basing its sunny statements on.
US officials have recently claimed that violence is down and specifically civilian deaths in Iraq have decreased. No evidence has been provided to the public that supports this claim. This assertion follows a bloody month for civilians in Iraq including a bombing that killed more than 400 people and is the deadliest attack of the war.
As the Iraq Study Group stated in its report, "Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals." The ISG’s own findings, and other recent reports, indicate that civilian deaths in Iraq are routinely being underreported.
This should provide Republicans in Congress with a stronger argument that the surge is not working and that the administration is being very selective in its use of stats to support optimistics assessments.
...It is imperative to American policy makers, Iraqi government officials, and the American people to have an accurate understanding of the impact of the President’s “surge” on Iraq’s civil war and the civilian population. Accurate portrayal of the scope of sectarian violence in Iraq is critical to making a complete assessment of the President’s escalation strategy, designed to provide space for political resolution to sectarian disputes. It is imperative that these statistics are accurately reported—and reported soon—as the Congress evaluates the White House’s September 15th report and the future of the US engagement in Iraq..
We owe it to the Iraqis, and to ourselves, to have as full accounting as possible.
Amen.
