Iraq's War Statistics Prove Fleeting

by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer

In this analysis, a total misrepresentation of the numbers provided by the US government concerning Iraq is debated. In what DeYoung calls a "fog of modern counterinsurgency warfare", she tells that instead of physical work on the ground, success is now being in Iraq by statistics. She even talks about how the Bush White House can't even seem to agree on each other, citing references that Bush and Rumsfeld made, with Rumsfeld discrediting Bush's steady stream of stats by calling them misleading. In what could one of the most recent ploys, President Bush told the nation in January that 21,500 troops would be heading to Iraq in a surge, but the number -- in less than two months -- has risen to 28,700. Rumsfeld was quoted nine months into the war as saying "We don't do body counts on other people," with the legitimacy of the that in complete quagmire because there are constantly updates on how many insurgents and terrorists were killed in action that day. Needless to say, there are plenty of arguments to back up this argument, and it makes you wonder how the United States can be so quick in throwing out numbers to back its work in Iraq. At what point are numbers that mean anything to Americans -- such as the troops will be coming home in 2 weeks -- be thrown at the American public? We can't wait long enough.