I wrote
on Wednesday about how Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri went after the media for allegedly over-reporting the bad news coming out of Iraq and ignoring just how peachy-keen things actually are in the middle of the Iraqi civil war. Well, it looks like the "liberal media" folks -- which to Bond must include all but the faux journalists at Fox News -- are at it again in revealing to Americans just how, well, un-peachy things actually are over there.
In a report headlined
"No Drop in Iraq Violence Seen Since Troop Buildup," the Post reports that despite Republicans throwing tens of thousands more American troops into the Iraq quagmire, there's been zero decrease in the overall level of violence in Iraq.
Here's more:
Despite the early drop in sectarian killings, data from the Baghdad morgue gathered by The Washington Post in May show them returning to pre-"surge" levels last month.
Suicide attacks more than doubled across Iraq -- from 26 in January to 58 in April -- said the report, which covers the three months from mid-February to mid-May.
Violence fell in Baghdad and Anbar province, where the bulk of the 28,700 more U.S. troops are located, but escalated elsewhere as insurgents and militias regroup in eastern and northern Iraq. In Anbar, attacks dropped by about a third, compared with the previous three months, as Sunni tribes have organized against entrenched fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq, the report said.
Overall, however, violence "has increased in most provinces, particularly in the outlying areas of Baghdad province and Diyala and Ninewa provinces," the report said. In Diyala's restive capital of Baqubah, U.S. and Iraq forces "have been unable to diminish rising sectarian violence contributing to the volatile security situation," it said.
I'm sure Bond will rip the Washington Post for this story -- citing yet another undocumented e-mail that he allegedly got from a soldier in Iraq -- and continue to be miffed that his role as unofficial chief of the Baghdad Tourism Bureau has failed to make people cancel their plans for Bermuda or Cancun.
You can read more from Bob at
BobGeiger.com.