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This is the month where the Bush administration tries to convince us that the so-called "surge" in Iraq has been working and that the war should continue; that we should continue funding this disaster and sacrificing American and Iraqi lives; that we should ignore this president's inability to admit that he's wrong.

In fact, General Petraeus has been running a full-scale PR offensive aimed at conning the American public into continuing the war. Call it, "Slimed in The Green Zone":

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) - "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates - was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

Unbelievable. Must everything in this administration be politicized? It's just incredible, actually. Read the rest of the stunning article.

Finally, you'll hear in the upcoming weeks how things are getting better all the time in Iraq, and that the so-called "surge" is working. Juan Cole has the numbers in his "Night of the Living Dead" post:

People lack potable water, cholera has broken out even in the good areas, a third of people are hungry, a doubling of the internally displaced to at least 1.1 million, and a million pilgrims dispersed just this week by militia infighting in a supposedly safe all-Shiite area. The government has all but collapsed, with even the formerly cooperative sections of the Sunni Arab political class withdrawing in a snit (much less more Sunni Arabs being brought in from the cold). The parliament hasn't actually passed any legislation to speak of and often cannot get a quorum. Corruption is endemic. The weapons we give the Iraqi army are often sold off to the insurgency. Some of our development aid goes to them, too.

The average number of Iraqis killed in 2007 per day exceeds those killed in 2006. Independent counts by news organizations do not agree with Pentagon estimates about drops in civilian deaths over-all. Nation-wide attacks in June reached a daily all-time high of 177.5. True, violence in Baghdad has been wrestled back down to the levels of summer, 2006 (hint: it wasn't paradise), but violence levels are up in the rest of the country. If you compare each month in 2006 with each month in 2007 with regard to US military deaths, the 2007 picture is dreadful.

It's way past the time when the troops should have come home. Call your representative and tell him or her to bring the troops home. Now.

Update: Kevin Drum has posted an email response to his entry about the Petraeus PR Offensive. It's written by Colonel Steven Boylan, US Army Public Affairs Officer to the Commanding General Multi-National Force-Iraq. Check it out, as he takes issues with some of Kevin's characterizations. Very interesting.

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