In an effort to take everybody's mind off how crappy the actual war is going in Iraq, Bush is speechifying today about how terrific the violence-ridden country's economy is.

All riiiighty then.

If bombed-out infrastructure, a citizenry terrorized by bombs in the marketplace (and the mosque and on residential streets), and waning oil production equals a climate conducive to economic growth, I need to re-up for a course in Economics 101.

From the AP's overview of Bush's oratory, we have this:

The administration has cited increases in Iraq's gross domestic product, work to boost oil production, the creation of new businesses and an explosion of cell phones as evidence of economic progress.

(As an aside, does anyone else consider the "explosion of cell phones" a poor choice of words?)

The article goes on to point out:

According to the White House strategy report, oil production increased last year to 2.25 million barrels a day from an average of 1.58 million barrels a day the year before.

Some Iraqi analysts in Washington say, however, it's misleading to use the 2003 figure of 1.58 million barrels because Iraqi oil production was dramatically curtailed that year, which included the U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath. They favor using a baseline figure of about 2 million barrels a day, which means oil production, curbed by decaying infrastructure and frequent militant attacks on pipelines and refineries, has remained flat.