Official declares Iraq '80 per cent secure'

[sabra]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16621413-38201,00.html

Official declares Iraq '80 per cent secure'


IRAQ'S government has been in talks with the US-led coalition for weeks about taking back responsibility for security, a senior Iraqi official said overnight, claiming 80 per cent of the troubled country was now safe.

The comments, by national security adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie, came against a backdrop of suicide car bombs that have left more than 170 people dead in two days.
Security adviser Mr Rubaieinsisted such attacks were the exception and about 80 per cent of the country was stable.

"We feel that some of the areas, urban areas, small towns and cities, are ready for the Iraqi security services to assume responsibility for security," he said.

"Eighty per cent of the country is secure, and there is no problem at all. It is only the 20 per cent which are the hotspots," he said.

[ET Awful]

1. It is 80% secure . . . it just happens that the 80% that's secure is all

in the middle of the desert and nobody lives there. . . it's that 20% where people live that's problematic.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. 80% desert; 20% urban. Yeah that 80 is secure. except borders

other than that, things are great.

[Roland99]

13. No kidding. They're just spouting out anything for a metric these days.

[Moochy]

2. the 20% happens to be the populated areas

80% of the desert is secure!

[tabasco]

6. Yeah, that other 20% is a real bitch, though ...

[TwilightZone]

3. Excuse me while I laugh hysterically.

After two and a half years, 150,000 troops, nearly 2,000 deaths, and $250 billion of OUR MONEY spent, the rural areas (very likely most of the 80%) are as secure as they were the day we invaded.

Mission accomplished!

[Moochy]

5. Mission 80% Accomplished!

:)

[TwilightZone]

9. I like it.

I think it would make a great campaign ad!

[Bob3]

4. But that 20% moves around a lot makes it hard.

And forgive me if i am wrong but isn't a lot of Iraq inhospitable desert and scrub brush were not a lot of people live?

[skiddlybop]

7. Excuse me, he was counting...

500 feet into airspace. So that the eighty percent of Iraq which is empty airspace is secure. The 100 feet from the ground up, covering all of the country in NOT secure. But the empty airspace above where people and oil exists is not.

Hope that clears it up.

[msgadget]

8. That's because,

while they're saying they're staying the course they're actually planning to draw down troops and it wouldn't be seemly to do that if the place wasn't 'secure' and if the Iraqi gov't and security services weren't falling in line with assurances.

[acmavm]

11. That 20% sure kicks the shit out of that 80%. They've lost so many

people to car bombs in the last two days they really need to refigure that equation.

These people apparently learned their mathmatical skills from the bush** administration.

[Mountainman]

12. You can't measure whether you are winning a war by how it looks today.

We were ready to kick the North Koreans into the sea when China joined the war. We thought North Vietnam was about finished juat before the Tet offensive took place. Hitler thought he had Russia on it's knees until winter hit.

[Maggie_May]

14. Good our troops can come home!

[gasperc]

15. that's 80% of the desert area, where no one fucking lives

crap zoid, what shits

[TomClash]

16. "Bush Declared 80% Brain Dead" nt

[RaulGroom]

17. This reminds me of an email I read

From a soldier in Iraq after the government announced that 13 of 16 provinces were secure prior to the January elections:

"Yeah, too bad camels can't vote."

[Caesarmajestic]

18. 80% of not secure is . . . not secure

[rocktivity]

19. The New Orleans levees were 80% secure from a Cat 4 hurricane

when Bush pulled their funding in 2003.

:headbang:
rocknation

[matt819]

20. And what percentage of the levees in NO held?

That's one heck of a 20% that remains insecure, judging from headlines over the past couple of days.

And, remember, it's 80% secure only until it's not 80% secure. Security is not a fixed thing. It changes from day to day, depending in many ways on the occupying force actions elsehwere in Iraq (generating responses from the opposition) and the ability of the occupying force to ensure and enforce that security, which is subject to change depending on budget, manpower, etc.

So, using that 80% figure, that means that 5 million Iraqis - 20% of the population, more or less -- are insecure. Gosh, transfer that over to the US, and I suppose that would mean that 72 million Americans are insecure. Hmmm. Okay, 80% of the country is secure. Was Baghdad a part of that 80%? If so, what accounts for the events over the past couple of days? Or perhaps that 80% secure is not necessarily contiguous, so that only unconnected parts of the country are just fine.

What a ridiculous numbers game these guys are playing. Though, while they're at it, keep in mind that one of the key numbers coming up shortly is 2,000 - Americans who've died for this folly.

[Just Me]

21. Sounds to me like they want our troops to leave as much as we do.

Surely they know that the BushCo/neoCON regime wants permanent military presence in Iraq.

[cwydro]

22. Halliburton

is obviously in charge of the Koolaid distribution there...

[Beetwasher]

23. The Same Official: And The MOON Is 100% Secure! Now THAT'S Progress!

n/t