Matt Drudge Lies!!!

Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report puts at the top of his webpage that since the "surge", the rate of killings has dropped 60%. Great news for all the Bushites who want to repeat the talking points. Only problem is, it's not true :( If anyone clicks on the link and pays attention to the source, they'll see the article is not from a credible, independent media outlet but from the Kuwait News Agency (or KUNA). Kuwait is still America's biggest ally in the Gulf (for obvious reasons) and so the source of the story is a huge tell here.

BAGHDAD, March 14 (KUNA) -- "The rate of killings of US troops in Iraq has been on the decline, down by 60 percent, since the launch of the new security measures in Baghdad, according to statistics revealed by the Multi-National Force -Iraq Combined Press Information Centre.

Only 17 members of the US military in Iraq have been killed since February 14 till March 13, compared to 42 from January 13 to February 13; the rate was on the decline during the first month of the security crackdown, compared to a month before.

Two of the 17 soldiers died at US Baghdad camps of non-combat causes.

The remarkable decrease in killings among the US troops came at a time when more of these troops were deployed in the Iraqi capital, especially in districts previously regarded as extremely hazardous for them such as Al-Sadr City, Al-Azamiyah, and Al-Doura."

But if you keep reading the story (as many Drudge readers will not) even the author of this quasi-article admits that it's untrue! He writes:

"The statistics excluded US troops killed in other governorates such as Al-Anbar, Diyala, and Salahiddin."

So much for including the whole country...

If you look at
http://icasualties.org/, the number of American troops killed from Feb. 14 through March 13 is 73, not 17, or more than four times higher than the article states. In the prior month, from Jan. 14 through Feb. 13, which was a remarkably bloody period, 116 American troops died. So the tally did drop overall, and that's great news, by it was 37 percent, not nearly the 60 percent as the story reports. And the decline in deaths per day is even less, because, as the article also fails to note, February only has 28 days.

The U.S. death rate for the 28-day period in question is 2.61 deaths a day. The daily American death rate since the war began four years ago is 2.37 deaths a day.

This means, Americans are dying now in Iraq at a higher-than-average rate for this conflict. So much for the Drudge Report :(



List of soliders killed