The Statistics of Propaganda

[sintax]

The statistics of propaganda

By Carl Hitchens
Online Journal Contributing Writer

August 9, 2005—Recently, I received a forwarded email quoting statistics credited to the Department of Defense (DoD) on the state of conditions in Iraq—traversing a broad spread of topics from the Iraqi government, police and military units and training, to the building of schools and even cell phone usage. The anonymous email criticized the media for not reporting this positive information, while selectively covering the negative, with the intention of undermining U.S. world perception and support and discouraging American citizens. The anonymous reporter was pained by the lack of love for our country.

I am surmising that the DoD citing relates to the recent House Conference Report 109?72 accompanying H.R. 121268, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005, Public Law 109–13, posted at the DoD's website. It is a 23-page report chock full of statistics and graphs on the American effort "toward a democratic Iraq." Reading it you get a real sense of what a prodigious undertaking it is to rebuild a nation destroyed by war.

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But for those that want to play the statistics game, let us consider some facts: Even by the most deflated propagandist death count—which contradicts previous credible counts—the England-based Iraqi Body Count (IBC) puts Iraqi civilian casualties at between 22,838 and 25,869. (By consensual reality-mitigation policy, US-British war statistics omit Iraqi body counts .)

Now the IBC count is bad enough, but it's far worse when you consider two independent studies investigating the death toll of Iraqi civilians: The British medical journal, The Lancet, estimating the death toll at 100,000, mostly women and children, and Iraqiyun Humanitarian Organization in Baghdad reporting 128,000 killed (of those deaths, 55 per cent have been women and children aged 12 and under, according to Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani, head of Iraqiyun). This data was compiled from relatives and families of the deceased, as well as from Iraqi hospitals throughout Iraq. (Global Research)

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/080905Hitchens/080905hitchens.html

[wli]

1. well, it's the Pentagon in the Bushler administration

All statistics that come out of it will be lies.