Lying about Iraq - so what else is new?

Yesterday, Gen. Petraeus told an Australian reporter that the surge is working because there had been a 75% reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year. Strange, since just this morning, we saw this:

BAGHDAD - Civilian deaths rose slightly in August as a huge suicide attack in the north two weeks ago offset security gains elsewhere, making it the second deadliest month for Iraqis since the U.S. troop buildup began, according to figures compiled Saturday by The Associated Press.

And, as BarbinMD points out at Daily Kos,

So where did Gen. Petraeus come up with his number? In all of 2006, there were 16,564 reported (emphasis on reported) civilian deaths, and in the first eight months of 2007, there has been 14,732 deaths. So, civilian deaths are down about 11%...but there are four months left in the year. Or was Gen. Petraeus comparing the same time periods from last year and this year? If that's the case, in the first 8 months of 2006, there were 8,490 civilian deaths versus the 14,732 in the first 8 months of 2007, which is an increase of nearly 75%. Is Gen. Petraeus using Karl Rove's math?

I think it's now become abundantly clear that Petraeus is nothing but a Bush toady, parroting the Bush line regardless of any facts to the contrary. I mean really, could this be anything but an outright lie?