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Gen. David Petraeus has just told members of Congress that "civilian deaths of all categories" have declined "over 45 percent Iraq-wide since the height of the sectarian violence in December."
Maybe he's right about that, but that's not what the Associated Press has found in its monthly tallies of Iraqi civilian deaths. The AP says that 2,172 Iraqi civilians were killed in December 2006 and that 1,809 Iraqi civilians were killed last month. By our math, that's a reduction of just 17 percent.
And if we compare August 2007 not with the "height of the sectarian violence in December" but with, say, August 2006, the AP shows that the death rate for Iraqi civilians has actually increased by something like 100 percent.
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
The author of "Fiasco" uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005.
By Thomas E. Ricks
Small Wars Journal
A journal dedicated to the study of such subjects as counterinsurgency, foreign internal defense, support and stability operations, peacemaking, and peacekeeping. Founded by ex-Marines.
Afghanistan is worse than you think
We all knew that the situation in Afghanistan has been rapidly becoming worse. But few people know just how steep the downward spiral has been.
By Alex Koppelman, Salon
The Eternal Urgency of War Hawks
US Troops in Iraq Bored, taking Salsa and Yoga Classes
Iraq War THE CAUSE of High State & Local Taxes