After getting away from the
daily themes for a little bit because of lazyness, here's a new theme for today --
The repeated lies of George W. Bush about Iraq. More info below the fold...
There's plenty of lies, so try to pick a few and run with them. Keep it pithy (50-150 words, 200 absolute max) and mail it to all your local papers. Check out some other guidelines in
my original diary entry.
A couple points:
- Claims "we're making progress", but this weekend, Colin Powell said "It's getting worse."
- Claims nearly 100,000 Iraqi security forces are fully trained and equiped, but the real number is something like 22,000 and they're minimally trained.
- Wants free and fair elections, but was planning to have the CIA interfere with the elections.
- Claims UN election officials are on the ground and making progress, when in fact very little progress toward the elections is being made.
- Claims a "handful" of people are causing trouble when, in fact, violence is widespread.
This article is a good source.
Juan Cole has lots of useful data and commentary. Searching
google news will bring up more specifics too.
My letter is as follows (remember, write your own - papers won't publish carbon copies).
The President's stalwart optimism is sounding more like the Iraqi information minister every day.
This past week he claimed that there were nearly 100,000 "fully trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel. In actual fact, according to information from the Pentagon, fewer than 23,000 have received even basic training.
He's further bragged that election preparations were well on their way, in spite of the fact that only a handful of UN election workers are actually on the ground. Voter registration is slated to begin in early October -- hardly a realistic time line given the current state of affairs.
Just this weekend, even Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that insurgency is "getting worse." When will Baghdad Bush accept reality and make the necessary changes to assure real progress in Iraq?