After the testimony of Kevin Tillman and Jessica Lynch yesterday, the public will not have a hard time believing that the Iraq civilian death toll is being manipulated for political reasons.
UN Raps Iraq For Holding Back Death Toll Figures
The United Nations rebuked Iraq's government on Wednesday for refusing to disclose politically sensitive civilian casualty figures in what it described as a "rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis".
We are suppose to believe that even though US military deaths are rising and car bomb attacks are rising, somehow simultaneously we are seeing a reduction in civilian deaths in Baghdad. The UN reported a continued high level of attacks on academics, making the reduction in civilian Baghdad deaths seem like quite the anomaly.
In a new human rights report on Iraq, the United Nations said academics, journalists and doctors and members of Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities were increasingly being intimidated, killed or kidnapped by armed groups.
It also expressed concern about the treatment of 3,000 suspects detained in a major U.S.-Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad. It said the government had a poor record of handling detainees.
The crackdown launched nine weeks ago is seen as a last chance to avert all-out civil war. U.S. and Iraqi officials say civilian casualties in Baghdad are down, although the death toll in the country has risen due to a surge in car bomb attacks.
They have not released any specific figures, however, using percentages to describe any increases or decreases.
Both Maliki and U.S. President George W. Bush are under domestic pressure to show progress in the crackdown after four years of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 3,300 U.S. soldiers.
Numbers out of the Baghdad morgue have been questioned for awhile. Shiite militias have had an interest in hiding the number of Sunnis they have killed. In March 2006, the director of the Baghdad morgue fled Iraq in fear of his life for reporting the toll of the death squads. After seeing the myth making the military engages in exposed in testimony yesterday, it would not startle to find that the numbers showing even the slight decline in Baghdad civilian deaths are artificial.