From the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 21 Oct 2007

Iraq: Violence-related deaths drop ‘remarkably’, say authorities and UN

BAGHDAD, 21 October 2007 (IRIN) – Iraqis are breathing a sigh of relief as violence in their war-torn country is ebbing and the number of violence-related victims has dropped sharply since the beginning of this year, according to statistics compiled by the country’s interior, defence and health ministries.

“Violence-related deaths in September dropped remarkably to levels not seen in more than a year as the number [of violence-related deaths] stood at 290 while in September 2006 the number was about 1,400,” Adel Muhsin, the health ministry’s inspector-general, told IRIN in a phone interview.

According to the ministry’s statistics, between January and the end of September 2007, the number of violent deaths involving civilian, police and military in all of Iraq was about 7,100, against 27,000 in the same period of 2006.

According to Muhsin, the average number of dead bodies sent to Baghdad’s main morgue just over a year ago was between 100 and 150 a day. Now, it is no more than 10 bodies a day, and about 50 percent of them are dying in normal circumstances.

There have been days this year when no dead bodies were sent to the morgue and this gave the morgue employees a chance to refurbish it, something they couldn’t do in the past.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon recently said that September witnessed the lowest number of Iraqi casualties in any month this year.

Lets look at Exley’s latest proof (from his article):

“Over the past three months, there has been a sharp and sustained drop in all forms of violence.”

Attributable to factors other than the surge.

The figures for dead and wounded, military and civilian, have also greatly improved.

There is evidence that many units have opted out of the war, by going on bogus missions – and then spending the time goldbricking in some safe locale. This would naturally reduce the dead and wounded. Another factor is the – shall we say – less than accurate pronouncements from pentagon personnel about casualties, and other occurrances during the war – making any current claims immediately suspect.

All across Baghdad, which has seen the worst of the violence, streets are springing back to life.

Baghdad has been reduced to a bunch of religious/political/tribal enclaves, each protecting it’s own turf. Can Sunnis safely shop in Shia markets, or vice versa? Convieniently, the article doesn’t say.

By any real measure, Baghdad and its environs hasn’t appreciably improved.

Is this the best you can offer Exley?

You’re spreading that stuff exceedingly thin, given your past over-the-top pronouncements about Iraq.

Completely and blatantly false. As we all know, since the completion of the surge earlier this year, the levels of violence in Iraq have seen a dramatic drop. This is an unassailable fact and has been widely reported. For example:

Is Iraq getting better?
By Jim Muir
BBC News, Baghdad

“Is Iraq getting better? The statistics say so, across the board.

Over the past three months, there has been a sharp and sustained drop in all forms of violence. The figures for dead and wounded, military and civilian, have also greatly improved. All across Baghdad, which has seen the worst of the violence, streets are springing back to life. Shops and restaurants which closed down are back in business. People walk in crowded streets in the evening, when just a few months ago they would have been huddled behind locked doors in their homes.

Everybody agrees that things are much better. “

Comment by Keltoi at Night —

More baloney – you must have a real taste for the stuff. I find it hilarious (and a little sad) that you keep trotting out doomsday scenarios – yet dismiss the carnage now occurring as a reasonable cost, since it would be so much worse if we left. You guys have been saying that for at least two years, as things have stayed essentially the same, or gotten worse. That you ducked my answer to your post demonstrates the weakness of your assertion.

Comment by Keltoi at Night

Astounding arrogance by the right wing….still trying to tell everyone that they know what will happen before it does….when have they been right about anything yet? Please.

Don’t worry trolls, the adults will be in power soon and you won’t have to worry about covering for your blunders any more….at least for a long time.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0710.tilghman.html

“while some analysts believe that AQI drafts Baathist insurgents to carry out its attacks, other intelligence experts think it is the other way around. In other words, they see evidence of native insurgent forces coopting the steady stream of delusional extremists seeking martyrdom that AQI brings into Iraq. “Al-Qaeda can’t operate anywhere in Iraq without kissing the ring of the former regime,” says Nance. “They can’t move car bombs full of explosives and foreign suicide bombers through a city without everyone knowing who they are. They need to be facilitated.” ‘” AQI recruits often find themselves taking orders from a network of former regime insurgents, who assemble their car bombs and tell them what to blow up. They become, as Nance says, “puppets for the other insurgent groups.”

The fact that suicide bombings are down AFTER American troops made a deal with Sunni insurgents makes a strong case that Mr. Tilghman is correct. And we could have had this Exact SAME DEAL Two Years Ago!

Comment by Keltoi at Night — January 12, 2008 @ 9:50 pm

All three of the Al Qaeda members in iraq will leave the same day we do. You’re a great propagandist, but a transparent liar.

Comment by Keltoi at Night — January 12, 2008 @ 8:25 pm

katy, if you care about the people of Iraq, you will back leaving immediately. Keltoi thinks the USA exists to enslave and re-educate the brown peoples of the world. keltoi is a racist fanatic without any common sense or decency, and his disease of American exceptionalism gives him fever dreams of Al Qaeda and other fairies. We are not at war, we are undertaking state terrorism. That is a fact. A war requires a declaration of war, not some trumped-up-with-lies AUMF crapola. A war requires following the laws of war, not evading them to commit torture and firebombing wedding parties. the idea that there was any enemy in Iraq in the first place is nothing but an excuse by a sociopath to humiliate his father, as well as his country. keltoi is Straw Man central.

Comment by katy — January 12, 2008 @ 9:40 pm

Who was Zarqawi, katy?

They exist. They are a tiny percentage of the fighters, but they are the most fanatical. Every time you hear sucide bombing? That isn’t the Nationalists, that isn’t Al-Sadr – that is Al Qaeda. Most of them aren’t Iraqis.

I look forward to the day I can agree with your post at 78. That day may be coming – but again, not if we leave too soon.

i have an idea that you will appreciate that REZA ASLAN piece also…
check out his interview on the daily show too…
…

i’m off to walk the pooch and unfold after that…
g’nite…

the smithsonian article, @ 6:44 pm

Comment by Juan C. — January 12, 2008 @ 8:54 pm

I leave hating my country to Lefty “Patriot”.

I am very critical of my governments doings – I think the body of my postings demonstrate that, as does my willingness to come here and discuss the shortfalls of that government with folks who are inclined to emphasize those shortfalls.

Katy, if the Reza Aslan piece is in reference to the youtube link you posted, my Keltoi at Night dial up connection is slower than slow so I can’t see it.
But – I get it. The people of Iran are not our foes. I am a history major – I know their culture and their history. I read voraciously on the history of the ME; it is most often not possible or germane to get into the historical weeds on TP.

And yes – what a checkered past we have pursued throughout the world since the close of WW II. Much of what we did was based on the ends justifying the means – what hurt the Soviets was good, morality be damned.

But then – we fire bombed Dresden to defeat Hitler.

Hiroshima.

Life is a veil of tears, and War is indeed Hell.

But you can’t end a war by saying it is over when the other side does not agree. If you do, that is called losing. Even if there is no winning, there is at least not losing. I think that sentiment is something AQI would understand well. And they are very patient.

yes, i have heard of the recent attempt to save the marches…
and the situation that brought it on…

you say: “Under Saddam, Iraq was a police state, a terror state, a tribute to the steaming evil of Stalinism with an Arab flavor.” – pretty stupid that we put him in that position, huh… and screwed up his “removal” to boot…

but, what do you think about the REZA ALSAN piece?
i’d think that you would be especially interested in his work…

Under Saddam, Iraq was a police state, a terror state, a tribute to the steaming evil of Stalinism with an Arab flavor.
Comment by Keltoi at Night

Wow, you really are deluded. Your blinding patriotism makes you defend whatever your government has done around the world.

Your government supported Saddam Hussein, US sold him bombs and chemical weaponry. Then US sold weapons to Iran. Big business. What about Shock and Awe? Did you know how many civilian casualties were after that operation? Did you know how many Iraqi civilian casualties were after the 1991 non-invasion? That DU was used by US troops and some of them were posioned with your own weapons? What about Mossadegh? What about Lebanon? Why every freaking armed conflict since WWII, the US is there arming some side?

I’m not saying you have to hate your country. THat’s nonesense, but in order to make a better world, if you want that, you have to be critical about your govt’s doings. Criticism makes a far better and stronger society, not blind compliance.

i found this photo compilation on the youtube… Beautiful Iran…
check it out, before it is gone also:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y9oIZpFFyIY

Comment by katy — January 12, 2008 @ 7:21 pm

Ah, katy. Have you ever heard of the Marsh Arabs? One of the most ancient cultures on Earth – before Saddam set out to destroy them by damning the Tigris-Euprhates confluence as it flows to the Persian gulf in an act of environmental genocide. Their plight was widely documented – as has the resurgence of their wetlands since Saddam was toppled courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Nothing in Mesopotamia is simple or easy – the bombs of the USA did not make the place a wasteland.

If you think I am a “rightie” who doesn’t know the difference between downtown Bagdhad and Tora Bora, you are wrong. Before the Mongols sacked the city c. 1256 AD Bagdhad was a jewel of architecture and learning; the city had few rivals during its time in all the world. Washington DC was a swamp at the time and London a miserable berg of mud streets and open sewers.

Under Saddam, Iraq was a police state, a terror state, a tribute to the steaming evil of Stalinism with an Arab flavor. Today, it teeters on the brink of becoming Beirut of the 70’s. What it will be in the decade to come is yet to be seen. If you care about the people of Iraq, think twice about leaving too soon.

… racist assumption … typical American exceptionalistic viewpoint …
Comment by Lefty Patriot — January 12, 2008 @ 4:21 pm

it’s so true… i’ve realized that the righties must have seen only the pictures of desert and caves, never the cities and neighborhoods…

the bombs from USA have made the country a wasteland…
it’s too bad the beauty of the country wasn’t documented widely before all the destruction… surely it was, somewhere…

i found this photo compilation on the youtube… Beautiful Iran…
check it out, before it is gone also:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=y9oIZpFFyIY

the “surge” is and was all about bribing al queda in iraq , and those who gave them material support, with between, what would be, in american buying power between 30,000 and 3 billion dollars EACH. im pretty convinced that if every petty thug in america were offered 30,000 $ to be part of a “neighborhood watch” and gang leaders were made into millionaires, with our tax money, we’d have alot less crime. what happens when the money runs out?
i only have to wonder how much money the shiia lawmakers were offered to give the ok to this benchmark. lets face it Exley, you’re never going to put a timeline or a maximum dollar amount on how long our patience should be in iraq. you’ll keep using petty pieces of legislaton like this to justify us staying and bribing al queda and thier allies not to attack us, no matter how long goes by or how many of our tax dollars go to peope with american blood on their hands. if there are truly time or dollar limits to your patience in iraq, then please describe them. thanks