Category Archives: The War

Pundits of my long-ago youth called the last few weeks before a national election "the silly season." They might also have said it was a time of bewildering blizzards of prevarications and outright lies dressed up as important investigative reporting and other revelations. Thus the current crop of Sunday MSM reports about that awful Bush administration. How else to win without making the incumbents look bad? On the Iraq war, however, recent claims that the violence is increasing, it’s a civil war, etc., are contradicted by, among others, the Defense Department in its latest, i.e. Aug. 29, "Report on Stability and Progress in Iraq," as summarized by NRO which has a link to the pdf version:

"…attacks against Coalition forces have dropped since the summer of 2004, while casualties of Iraqi Security Forces have increased dramatically as ISF have moved to take main responsibility for providing security in the country ( p.32).  Also the attacks remain confined mostly to one out of 18 provinces (Anbar) and Baghdad, while the vast majority of the country —  14 out of 18 provinces — has remained peaceful and largely secure."

Sure doesn’t sound that way in the 24/7 news cycle, where "violence rocks Iraq" yet again, but what can you expect? It’s the silly season–or, if you prefer, the season for lying.