Merry Christmas, Iraq

Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a trip to Iraq brought what was supposed to sound like good news to weary troops and the US public alike. News outlets typically followed the script, allowing Rumsfeld to to tout minor deployment changes that may mean there will be 7,000-fewer US troops in Iraq compared to some point over the past few months.

Today, Rumsfeld was out on a Christmas Eve happy-face pr shot in the troops serving line, dutifully reported by the Sinclair-owned Portland, Maine CBS affiliate with the quote, ``Certainly no one more than you deserves the Christmas wish of tidings and joy, for that's what you have selflessly given to 25 million Iraqis.''

But elsewhere in the Washington Post on Christmas Eve we learn that ``U.S. airstrikes in Iraq have surged this fall, jumping to nearly five times the average monthly rate earlier in the year, according to U.S. military figures''....

``...townspeople, tribal leaders, medical workers and accounts from witnesses at the sites of clashes, at hospitals and at graveyards indicated that scores of noncombatants were killed last month in fighting, including airstrikes, in the opening stages of a 17-day U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Anbar province. (via Needlenose)

Of course, the military disputes that it is killing anyone who does not deserve killing. Many Iraqis seem to have a different impression.