Juan Cole has a good link this morning taking apart the “spinning of US military deaths in Iraq for the corporate media”. As Juan says, “the intrepid Brian Whitaker gets it“. Here’s an excerpt:

The 74 US military deaths reported in July (since revised upwards to 78) were indeed the lowest since November. According to a high-ranking commander quoted by the New York Times, this is a “positive sign”. Viewed in another way, though, the figure is alarming. As Juan Cole, the blogging professor from Michigan University, points out, a decrease in July would be normal:

July is like a blast furnace in Iraq, with temperatures approaching 120 degrees F in the shade. Guerrillas typically lie low in this unfavourable environment, compared to other seasons, and so the casualty rates go down. Instead, this year the killing season has gone on as if it were spring.

In fact, last month was the deadliest July for American troops since the war began. The July figures for previous years range between 43 and 54, so – behind the spin – this year has seen a big increase.

Whitaker goes on to point out that according to the Iraqi government, civilian deaths were up by one-third in July over June, totaling 1,652. He further shows that it was the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the leading neocon thinktank, that provided the surge idea to Bush and the administration. However, as he points out, the AEI has been proved so wrong about so much in relation to the Middle East that it’s amazing anyone still listens to it or gives it money.

Why can’t our corporate media point out these things?