Security Experts: Show us the evidence civilian deaths in Iraq have decreased

[RedEarth]

Hot on the heels of the GAO report today suggesting the Bush administration is playing fast and loose with the Iraq benchmarks comes a letter to Congress urging scrutiny over how the administration is quantifying allegedly-improving security in Iraq. The liberal National Security Network writes today that "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."

The letter -- signed by former Clinton Defense Secretary Bill Perry, Princeton's Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Clinton and Bush 43 counterterrorism aide Rand Beers, and six other security wonks -- urges disclosure of statistics underlying the claim. "Not only is accurate reporting the key to sound policy, it is also the responsibility of government to those who have lost loved ones to this horrific conflict."

Full text of the letter here..........

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004040.php#more

[AnneD]

1. Probably because...

there aren't as many left.

[Vincardog]

2. it really is because the Enron accountants they hired were told to change the ones that counted.

Anyone who did not die in front of a notary with two witnesses does not count.