Caught in the middle

By Creature

Deadliest...

July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government has failed.

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll in January.

The rising numbers suggested that sectarian violence is spiraling out of control, and seemed to bolster an assertion many senior Iraqi officials and American military analysts have made in recent months: that the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping toward one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias.

Wasn't it just yesterday that June was the deadliest? But at least the GOP can still blame the liberal, anti-war, terrorist-sympathizing media for painting such a grim picture of the violence in Iraq. Or can they?

The statistics were significantly higher than previous civilian death tolls, and indicated that the news media had drastically underreported the level of violence in Iraq. [blame me for the emphasis]

Underreported and underexposed. The U.S. media should take a page from the Al Jazeera play book and show the dead, show the injured, show the body parts and blown off body bits. They should show the true mayhem we have unleashed then next time maybe we, as a nation, will think twice before rushing to war.

The NYT has more (or less since we still don't have a real picture of the violence in Iraq).

(Cross-posted at State of the Day.)