Troop reductions: Make that lie #936

Guest post by Swampcracker

Swampcracker, the author of the blog Ecophotos, is a long-time commenter at The Reaction. This is his first guest post. -- MJWS

**********

Last month, CNN published a story about the number of falsehoods told by President Bush and his aids leading to the Iraq War. According to a study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, the administration made a total of 935 false statements:

[President Bush] made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

President Bush is about to raise the ante of lies to 936.

During his last State of the Union address to Congress, the president claimed there would be a planned reduction of 20,000 American troops during 2008, attributable to the "success" of the Surge. What is the deception behind his claim?

The 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart Georgia, comprising 20,000 troops, is scheduled to return home this year. However, there was a deliberate sleight of hand in President Bush's claim. The hidden card up the sleeve is the pending deployment of 20,000 troops from the 10th Mountain Division. It will be deployed to Iraq concurrent with the return of the 3rd ID. Therefore, the net change in overall troop strength will be zero, hardly the reduction claimed by President Bush. In other words, make that Lie #936.

Meanwhile, where has the mainstream media been since the beginning of the Iraq War? Has the MSM exposed any of these lies and deceptions? According to CPI:

Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical.

Regrettably, the MSM has taken an extended six-year lunch break from reporting the truth, while the American public continues to subsist on a diet of lies, lies, and more lies during an election year.

Contrary to the latest claim by the Liar-in-Chief, troops will continue to rotate at a constant level, and there will be no reductions in actual headcount for the duration of his term.