i fucking hate these people.

* Preznit Blinky speaks:

"Today, nearly half of the IEDs in Iraq are found and disabled before they can be detonated."

this is bullshit, of course - technically it's semi-true probably - which is even more damning. when you unwind the sentence, it simply means that they are only finding one IED per explosion - which basically means they can't find stockpiles.

*

"In the past 18 months, we've cut the casualty rate per IED attack in half."

this is also bullshit - there are probably just more attacks - so it's not surprising that the targets are 'less ripe'

note that he doesn't say "fewer people are being killed by IEDs"

why do they construct their sentences like this? so that newspapers report bullshit like this:

""Nearly half the IEDs in Iraq are being found and disabled before they are detonated," he said, adding that casualty numbers from IEDs have been cut in half as a result."

i guess it's too much to expect that journalists are familiar with both words and numbers.

when you read this:

" For example, just three weeks ago, coalition forces uncovered a massive IED arsenal hidden in a location northwest of Baghdad. They found and confiscated more than 3,000 pieces of munitions -- in one of the largest weapons caches discovered in that region to date. "

you don't know how many pieces of munition there are per IED - so you know they are lying spinning furiously.

and when you hear this:

"In all, during the past six months, Iraqi and coalition forces have found and cleared nearly 4,000 IEDs"

all you know is that there have been 4000 IED attacks in 6 months. 22 per day. WE'RE WINNING. WOOHOO.

and in case you were wondering, this speech had little to do with iraq - hence the dodgy kabuki about IEDs and the tomfoolery with the numbers - watch the rubes get excited as the speech comes to a cresendo:

"Some of the most powerful IEDs we're seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran. Our Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, told the Congress, "Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devises" in Iraq. Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran. Such actions -- along with Iran's support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons -- are increasingly isolating Iran, and America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats. (Applause.)"

and this was one of the oddest sentences ever, given that everyone knows that america is losing:

"The enemy will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated."

and this from the man who told every to go shopping, go to disneyland, and report any sightings of people getting into cropdusters:

"Since the morning of September the 11th, we have known that the war on terror would require great sacrifice"

i fucking hate these people.