Body Count In Baghdad Up in June

I keep seeing right-wing blogs quoting what are basically Administration or military sources telling the world that "the surge is working". It's all pretty vague, with sweeping quotes brimming with optimism. The right keeps hammering away at Anbar province as a big "success" story. First of all, Anbar province holds about 1% of the population of Iraq, so even if it were to suddenly become all rainbows and puppy dogs overnight it would hardly reflect the big picture of the situation in Iraq. Second, the "brilliant" strategy employed in Anbar is essentially using one armed gang to wipe out another armed gang. The Iraqi military is a no-show in the province and is simply not "standing up". The Iraqi 'government' in Anbar is also AWOL. If the Iraqi military ever does somehow gain control of the province, they will have to take on our "buddies", who do not particularly like the U.S. presence and do not particularly support the Maliki government. If we employ the "Anbar strategy" on a large scale, we have nothing more or less than a complete civil war.
Bush is once again using Al-Qaeda as the focus and ignoring the problem of sectarian forces doing 'ethnic cleansing' in this "civil-war-that-is not-a-civil-war". As the story below shows, the situation of sectarian killings is actually getting worse. Maliki can't even form a complete Cabinet, and even Republicans are saying that his 'government' is irrelevant and impotent. The military has now taken to calling anyone they kill "Al-Qaeda" based on nothing more than the fact they are dead. It seems that "Al-Qaeda" has become nothing more than a generic name for anyone willing to take up arms against the occupation, whether they are Shia or Sunni. Hint: Al-Qaeda is a Sunni organisation.
The real sign of "progess" from the surge would be if Iraqis who have fled the country are returning. They aren't, and more flee every day from this "improving" situation.
Story from the Washington Post

Body Count In Baghdad Up in June

By Joshua Partlow

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 5, 2007; Page A01

BAGHDAD, July 4 -- Nearly five months into a security strategy that involves thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops patrolling Baghdad, the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital was 41 percent higher in June than in January, according to unofficial Health Ministry statistics.

During the month of June, 453 unidentified corpses, some bound, blindfolded, and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In January, 321 corpses were discovered in the capital, a total that fell steadily until April but then rose sharply over the last two months, the statistics show.