Violence in Iraq is down, but mostly because so many Iraqis are dead or gone

The White House is happy to tell everyone that the level of violence in Iraq has decreased in recent weeks. But according the the Government Accountability Office (GAO), there's a disturbing reason for the decrease: Ethnic Cleansing. From ThinkProgress:

In a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee today, Joe Christoff of the Government Accountability Office stated that this recent reduction in violence should be taken with a grain of salt, as it coincides with increased sectarian cleansing and a massive refugee displacement:

I think that’s [ethnic cleansing] an important consideration in even assessing the overall security situation in Iraq. You know, we look at the attack data going down, but it’s not taking into consideration that there might be fewer attacks because you have ethnically cleansed neighborhoods, particularly in the Baghdad area. […]

It’s produced 2.2. million refugees that have left, it’s produced two million internally displaced persons within the countryas well.