U.S. officials exclude bombs in touting drop in Iraq violence

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17134251.htm

By Nancy A. Youssef

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

President Bush explained why in a television interview on Tuesday. "If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory," he told TV interviewer Charlie Rose.

Others, however, say that not counting bombing victims skews the evidence of how well the Baghdad security plan is protecting the civilian population - one of the surge's main goals.

"Since the administration keeps saying that failure is not an option, they are redefining success in a way that suits them," said James Denselow, an Iraq specialist at London-based Chatham House, a foreign policy think tank.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. I Love The Liquid Standards

"If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory" is classic. So let's just redifine everything so that it shows that we're winning.

Oy.