1115.org

Bush has been singing the song as soulfully and sincerely over the last month as he’s ever sang it:

I’ve got to admit it’s getting better
a little better, all the time

But the facts just keep getting in the way:

Iraqi figures estimate civilian deaths in violence across the country rose by 13% last month, despite the security crackdown in Baghdad.

Data compiled by several ministries put civilian deaths in March at 1,861 - compared with 1,645 for February.

So how come we have been hearing so much about how the security crackdown in Baghdad has really started to turn things around in Iraq? Apparently that’s been coming from the Bush administration’s in-house rocket scientists. The ones who never realized that if you pour troops into Baghdad, you’ll just shift the insurgents and the violence out of Baghdad,and into the rest of the country. So they have apparently focused on violence statistics just in Baghdad, and they have been moved to declare all kinds of progress.

A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures.

US diplomats say violence in the Iraqi capital has fallen by 25%.