Appearing on CNN’s Late Edition this morning, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), who recently returned from Iraq, asserted “some major improvements” are being witnessed in Iraq. Echoing claims made by Gen. David Petraeus, Boustany said “sectarian deaths are down.”
Host Wolf Blitzer corrected Boustany’s assertion, citing Iraqi health ministry statistics that report Iraqi civilian deaths have been climbing. The LA Times reports:
Bombings, sectarian slayings and other violence related to the war killed at least 1,773 Iraqi civilians in August, the second month in a row that civilian deaths have risen, according to government figures obtained Friday. In July, the civilian death toll was 1,753, and in June it was 1,227. Blitzer emphasized, “In terms of Iraqi dead people, those numbers are high and getting worse despite the increased military troop levels of the United States — the so-called surge — having been in effect over the past couple of months.”
Confronted with factual evidence proving his claims incorrect, Boustany attempted to pivot to anecdotal evidence of what he saw on the ground. “I want to point out that just two or three months ago, I would have never thought that four members of Congress would be able to walk through the streets of Fallujah,” he said. But Blitzer quickly noted “you had a lot of security with you,” forcing Boustany to acknowledge he walked with “a platoon of Marines.”
Someone [paradox, of the the leftcoaster, I think] asked "where is the outrage?" referring to this campaign to sell the idea that the so-called surge is working. I thought, "I’m outraged." Everyone I know or read is "outraged." But all we can do is talk "outrage" among ourselves. What matters is how the general population and the Congressmen all hear it. It’s hard to be awake and not know, deep down, that this surge campaign is just more spin from the top. What matters is whether the regular guy who voted for Bush and the Republican agenda has had enough of this malarkey yet. And I don’t think any of us know the answer to that. I’m also not sure that our outrage is the thing that’s going to tip the balance. I’m glad the media is waking up some. But, I’m afraid that we’ll just have to wait, unless we get us a credible, loud whistle-blower. Oh, wouldn’t that just be the absolute berries to have such a person be the one that wears out and starts talking? It’s close enough now for any straw to break this camels back in two…
You have a gift that I wish I had more of, the gift of looking at the tiniest bit of positive and making the positive seem splendid. Your gift must have come in real handy with your profession. Right now a lot of us need to feel more positive about the country’s future. The negatives in the Bush’s years have been brutally plentiful. I can’t even watch Bush when he is on television because he is so painful to watch. Now we are all reading that Bush and Cheney want to go to war with Iran and we can’t even win a war with a country that doesn’t have a regular army. When will their insanity be stopped?