No seriously, it's straight from
Knight-Ridder (via
Campaign Desk).
Earlier this month KR's military correspondent in Washington, Joseph Galloway, smelled his own rat in an entirely different set of numbers:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's estimate of 1,500 and 2,500 "enemy killed" in Iraq. Galloway has the advantage of having been around forever, and unlike younger reporters, he vividly remembers the ludicrous body-count claims the Pentagon foisted on Vietnam war reporters, right up until the ignominious end, so he did some checking of his own.
"Take the new Iraq numbers," Galloway wrote dryly. "If, as Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, has said, the total insurgent strength in Iraq is now only 5,000, and if Rumsfeld's high-end number is correct and 2,500 of the enemy were killed in August, then just one more month and the enemy will all be dead and we can go home." That's the kind of reporting that has been sorely lacking from certain more prominent news institutions that likely spend more on expense accounts alone than Knight Ridder allocates to tracking down the news in any given month.
So we can have the victory parade in time for thanksgiving!
Right? ... right?!?