CNN Misleads with Global Terrorism Headline
The State Department released its annual report on global terrorism, and CNN and the Dems dove right in to mislead the public. The CNN headline reads:
Report: Global terrorism up more than 25 percent
Given that headline, you might think that Harry Reid was justified with his usual finger-pointing:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the new document, which comes as President Bush prepares to veto an emergency war-spending bill that calls for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008, "dramatically demonstrates once again the unfortunate results of four years of a failed strategy."
This is quite true - incidents of terror were up globally 25% from 2005 to 2006. BUT, where did the increase come from? Here are the real stats:
| Year | Incidents Worldwide | Incidents in Iraq | Incidents Not in Iraq |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 11,153 | 3468 | 7685 |
| 2006 | 14,338 | 6630 | 7708 |
Hmmm. So global terrorism, excepting Iraq, increased by only 0.003%. If you exclude Afghanistan, where the incidents increased from 491 to 749, global terrorism actually decreased by a small amount.
But don't expect Harry Reid to mention that.
{I've modified this slightly to read "exclude Afghanistan" rather than "include Afghanistan." I was originally thinking that you would "include" Afghanistan in the countries that were excluded from the list. This way it's a little less Byzantine}