Who exactly is reporting on how well the surge is working in Baghdad?

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit, despite a recent drop in violence attributed to the build-up of U.S. forces, a poll released on Wednesday said.

The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed that many U.S. journalists believe coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict.

A separate Pew poll released on Tuesday showed that 48 percent of Americans believe the U.S. military effort in Iraq is going very or fairly well, up from 34 percent in June, amid signs of declining Iraqi civilian casualties and progress against Islamist militants such as al Qaeda in Iraq.

But most journalists said they believe violence and the threat of violence have increased during their tenures.

"Above all, the journalists -- most of them veteran war correspondents -- describe conditions in Iraq as the most perilous they have ever encountered, and this above everything else is influencing the reporting," the authors said in a report that accompanied the data.

Now if the journalists cannot do any real reporting because it is too dangerous then where does the "good news" come from? Who is providing the numbers that say the casualties are down?

Is it from the Iraqi Prime Minister? And we all know that his take on this subject is not prejudiced, don't we.

Or from the Associated Press? I usually trust them on most news stories, but where are they getting their numbers? Is it from reports like these?

Let's face it. If the reporters are relying on information provided by the military to gauge the amount of violence in Baghdad that should raise thousands of red flags in our heads.

But that does not seem to stop CNN, MSNBC, and of course FOX, from acting as if it is the gospel.

Hey maybe it is like the Gospels. That was also a supposedly historical document with a very pronounced prejudicial bent to it.

Violence is down in Baghdad, so did the "surge" work? If by "work" you mean there is no one left to kill then, yeah!

“I would like to agree with the idea that violence in Iraq has decreased and that everything is fine,” retired general Waleed al-Ubaidy told IPS in Baghdad. “But the truth is far more bitter. All that has happened is a dramatic change in the demographic map of Iraq.”

And as with Baquba and other violence-hit areas of Iraq, he says a part of the story in Baghdad is that there is nobody left to tell it. “Most of the honest journalists have left.”

“Baghdad has been torn into two cities and many towns and neighbourhoods,” Ahmad Ali, chief engineer from one of Baghdad’s municipalities told IPS. “There is now the Shia Baghdad and the Sunni Baghdad to start with. Then, each is divided into little town-like pieces of the hundreds of thousands who had to leave their homes.”

Many Baghdad residents say that the claims of reduced violence can be tested only when refugees go back home.

Many areas of Baghdad that were previously mixed are now totally Shia or totally Sunni. This follows the sectarian cleansing in mixed neighbourhoods by militias and death squads.

Remember the golden rule when hearing the Bush administrations side on anything, "If they are talking, they are lying".

Dick Cheney in 1994 telling a reporter that invading Baghdad would result in a quagmire. Too bad he never listens to himself.

It is just unbelievable that these guys threw logic to the wind in the pursuit of a faith based approach to world affairs.

We need to put these criminals on trial. America deserves justice, and actually so does Iraq.

(Are you as struck as I am at how reasonable Cheney comes across? I actually believe and trust that guy.)

60% of Baghdad is still out of control.

Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said American troops launched the offensive in Baghdad's Arab Jabour and Salman Pac neighborhoods Friday night. It was the first time in three years that U.S. soldiers entered those areas, where al-Qaida militants build car bombs and launch Katyusha rockets at American bases and Shiite Muslim neighborhoods.

Odierno said there was a long way to go in retaking the city from Shiite Muslim militias, Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaida terrorists. He said only about "40 percent is really very safe on a routine basis" — with about 30 percent lacking control and a further 30 percent suffering "a high level of violence."

This is just one city. We cannot get control of just this one city.

I know that there are a lot of complicating factors that make this such a complex situation, but at the end of the day the most powerful military in the world cannot ensure the safety of the population in one city in Iraq. That is a pretty good indication of our ability to ever gain control of Iraq as a whole. We can't!

And it makes absolutely no difference how many brave young men and women we send into that charnel house, it will never do any good. We are essentially sending them to die. They may not die on the first tour so they will continue to be sent back until they do.

This is not a war this is a suicide mission, for our troops and for our country. As long as we are there we will remain unprepared for all of the deadly things that are happening in so many other parts of the world.

How is the US responding to the desires of the Iraqis whose country they are occupying? Not one little bit.

American forces have completed construction of a concrete wall around the Baghdad district of Adhamiya despite protests from the Iraqi prime minister and local residents who claim that they are now at the mercy of militants.

The wall was intended to help control the activities of militants in the predominantly Sunni Muslim district. But it remains a bastion of extremist al-Qa'eda linked groups. Parts of the district are so thick with armed militants that they are no-go zones to coalition forces.

Capt Mohammad Jasim, an Iraqi soldier manning a checkpoint on the Adhamiya bridge, said: "The Americans did not listen to us. We think this wall has made the area inside the wall more dangerous for people.

So apparently we were able to capture the Iraqi's hearts and minds, and then contain them behind this wall so that we don't have to deal with them anymore.

Do we ever do anything right in this country?

You have to see this video of CNN's Michael Ware totally calling bullshit on McCain's claim that parts of Baghdad are perfectly safe.

This is so great that it absolutely is a must see for anybody who hates being lied to by politicians.

"Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I don't know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."

McCain has linked his candidacy to a sinking ship and it is only a matter of time before he sinks completely out of our sight.