Am I the only one who gets a "1984" feeling from the latest death reports?

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6050620,00.html

"Preliminary Health Ministry figures released Thursday show violent deaths in Iraq dropped substantially in August from record levels the previous month, despite a surge of killings in Baghdad in the past week. "

I'm drawn to the parts of the book/movie where the ministry of Plenty would change the numbers regarding production/rationing to manipulate the masses.

especially with this paragraph following

"That represents a significant drop from the Health Ministry's July figure of 3,500 deaths, reported by Deputy Health Minister Adel Muhsin. He said that was the highest monthly figure recorded since the war began in March 2003. "

All Hail Big Brother.

[w8liftinglady]

1. consider this..

http://www.orwelltoday.com/truth.shtml

The Ministry of Truth, Winston's place of work, contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below.

The Ministsry of Truth concerned itself with Lies. Party ownership of the print media made it easy to manipulate public opinion, and the film and radio carried the process further.

The primary job of the Ministry of Truth was to supply the citizens of Oceania with newspapers, films, textbooks, telescreen programmes, plays, novels - with every conceivable kind of information, instruction, or entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric poem to a biological treatise, and from a child's spelling-book to a Newspeak dictionary

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. All I can say is...

Where the bloody hell have you been these last few years? I've been feeling like Smith since late 2001.

[w8liftinglady]

3. um..I've been right here-writing similar things...

[bryant69]

4. Anytime you post "Am I the Only one" the answer is no

Rule of thumb. You are never the only one.

I don't see the parrallel there - they aren't changing the numbers, just comparing one number to the other - you might look at the deficiet reduction forecasts and the games being played with those numbers.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[w8liftinglady]

5. I have a hard time believing there has been a 2,400 drop in casualties.

pardon my skepticism,but in light of the current violence,I see this as a SHAM to validate increasing troop strength in the area.

[genie_weenie]

6. The Land of Vanguard Christianica has always been at war with Iran... n/t

[DeeDeeNY]

7. We have no way of checking them

Whatever the amount of deaths, it is still too high. Maybe our problem is that we're all too focused on the "reality based community".

An aide to Bush talking to author Ron Suskind before the 2004 election:
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. Maybe civilian deaths did drop significantly --

how about the rate of US and coalition deaths? Seems to me August was a pretty rough month. Is the focus maybe changing back to the occupation?

[Selatius]

9. Whatever. In the end, the Iraqis will demolish this government of Iraq

It will fall when the US leaves because most of the real power in the country is now held by militias operating in the countryside despite the central government's claim to authority.

[raccoon]

10. Somebody started a thread here a few months ago about a

soldier s/he ran into in an airport and the soldier said the official figures were way below the reality.