Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

"Success" in Iraq? Well, I had been wondering about the actual figures, and here they are. Juan Cole about the ballyhooed surge in Iraq:

I personally find the controversy about Iraq in Washington to be bizarre. Are they really arguing about whether the situation is improving? I mean, you have the Night of the Living Dead over there. People lack potable water, cholera has broken out even in the good areas, a third of people are hungry, a doubling of the internally displaced to at least 1.1 million, and a million pilgrims dispersed just this week by militia infighting . . . The government has all but collapsed . . . The parliament hasn't actually passed any legislation to speak of and often cannot get a quorum. Corruption is endemic. The weapons we give the Iraqi army are often sold off to the insurgency. Some of our development aid goes to them, too.
The average number of Iraqis killed in 2007 per day exceeds those killed in 2006 . . . Nation-wide attacks in June reached a daily all-time high of 177.5l . . . US troop deaths haven't fallen. They are way up . . .
8-2007 77 8-2006 65
7-2007 79 7-2006 43
6-2007 101 6-2006 61
5-2007 126 5-2006 69
4-2007 104 4-2006 76
3-2007 81 3- 2006 31
2-2007 81 2-2006 55
1-2007 83 1-2006 62
I mean, how brain dead do the Bushies think we are . . . And why does our corporate media keep repeating this Goebbels-like propaganda?

Why? Because it just feels so good to be "winning" for a change.