Pissing and Moaning

AND LYING while people die.

WASHINGTON - U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration's policy goals, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said...

Specifically it states on pages 94 and 95 of the report:

In addition, there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq. The standard for recording attacks acts as a filter the iraq study group report to keep events out of reports and databases. A murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an attack. If we cannot determine the source of a sectarian attack, that assault does not make it into the database. A roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attack that doesn’t hurt U.S. personnel doesn’t count. For example, on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence.

Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals.

Let's revisit all the lying and complaining about the Lancet report of 420,000 to 710,000 dead shall we?