In attempting to argue the success of the surge, Gen. David Petraeus presented a bevy of controversial statistics about deaths, attacks, bombings and violence. Other agencies, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, have offered contradictory numbers, suggesting the whole enterprise is fraught with inaccuracies. Apparently, for example, the U.S. considers those shot from the front as victims of crime, not sectarian violence. It is an odd counting rule, but apparently helps the administration make its case.As important as agreeing on the statistics, though, is assessing their meaning. Numbers do not speak for themselves; they must be interpreted. In the end, whether mostly right or terribly wrong, the general’s statistics do not mean very much because they are largely unrelated to the goals President Bush delineated. In short, the general is measuring the wrong things. In announcing his escalation of the war in January, President Bush offered two central criteria for success. One goal was giving “the Iraqi government