Iraq statistics are the new body counts

The WaPo has an interesting frontpager looking at the how the "metrics" in Iraq (piles of dead bodies) are calculated. They don't come out and say that Petraeus was lying, but they do say this,

Apparent contradictions are relatively easy to find in the flood of bar charts and trend lines the military produces. Civilian casualty numbers in the Pentagon's latest quarterly report on Iraq last week, for example, differ significantly from those presented by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in his recent congressional testimony. Petraeus's chart was limited to numbers of dead, while the Pentagon combined the numbers of dead and wounded -- a figure that should be greater. Yet Petraeus's numbers were higher than the Pentagon's for the months preceding this year's increase of U.S. troops to Iraq, and lower since U.S. operations escalated this summer.

What an amazing coincidence that his variation from the Pentagon numbers just happens to make him look good. (Here's the flat line graph from the Pentagon report.)

Success is just around the corner.

Also in Iraq, (WaPo) A suicide bomber killed 21 in Baquba targeting a meeting between Sunnis and Shiites in a mosque.The police Chief was killed, the governor was wounded, and a number of other key politicians were involved.

(WaPo) A suicide bomber drove into the Police Headquarters in Basra, killing 3 wounding 20.