Bush Misleads On Violence In Iraq

Misleader: President Bush and his allies have insisted that violence in Iraq is limited to a few isolated pockets of resistance. President Bush said last Wednesday that there are a "handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process." The next day, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told reporters at a press conference in the Rose Garden "there is nothing, no problem, except on a small pocket in Fallujah."[2] Information in a secret report compiled for the administration suggests that Bush and Allawi are misleading the public about the scope of violence in Iraq.
According to data collected by Kroll Security International for the administration, there are about 70 attacks a day on U.S. and coalition forces, compared to 40-50 attacks a day before the transfer of authority to the interim Iraqi government. Moreover, the data indicate attacks in "nearly every major city in central, western and northern Iraq." Allawi, in a speech to Congress last Tuesday, described Baghdad as "very good and safe." But the Kroll data reveal that, in recent weeks, there have been an average of 22 attacks per day on troops in Baghdad.