The Government Accountability Office’s report on Iraq is a little rosier than the draft leaked last week. Still, the GAO concluded that Iraq failed to meet 11 of the 18 progress benchmarks set by Congress, including all of the key political benchmarks. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and military commander Gen. David Petraeus likely will cite military progress when they report to Congress next week on the status of the surge. But it’s the lack of political progress in Iraq that has members of Congress and the public questioning the surge’s value and continuation. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., complained on the Senate floor Tuesday: “We can’t continue to sacrifice American lives, deplete our Treasury and weaken our national security in pursuit of a goal that the Iraqi people themselves show no interest in achieving.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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55 Comments
Bush will see the glass as 7/18 full, rather than 11/18 empty.
Why are we still there? If the Iraqui government (sort of) can’t come to grips with the problem, why should we waste American lives over it?
And, predictably, Republicans and the Pentagon are now mobilizing to fault the report as “too harsh.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090402338_2.html?hpid=topnews
Reading the comments of anonymous Pentagon sources suggests that, once again, military leadership is doing what the Administration tells it to do.
So, who is more credible: military brass who have a stake in the outcome of the “Surge,” or an impartial group of researchers from the General Accounting Office?
Petraus needs to confer with Powell, on teaming up with the pres.
Petraus needs to confer with Powell, on teaming up with the pres.
The report card of the newly elected Democratic Congress looks rather bleak as well. It appears the Dems are big on lip service but very lax on achieving their own benchmarks right here in the U.S.A.
Should there be anyone out there who still thinks there will be any surprise in the report to be delivered by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, read bush’s own words.
Bush: That’s going to be up to the recommendations of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. No question that the reinforcements and the surge have made a difference and we are standing in a province where it has made a significant difference. And so I’m looking forward to what they have to say as to how to continue security and at the same time enhance the reconciliation process.
Raddatz: General Petraeus — we talked to this morning and he said he’s given you his recommendation already this morning.
Bush: Well I’m not going to give it to you now, I’m going to wait for General Petraeus to come and speak to the country.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3553917&page=1
There will be nothing more or less than bushco have decided in advance. His only hope is to delay until at least January of 2009 when the mess he made is someone else’s problem.
The GAO report is misleading when they interpret it as an all or nothing on each of the 18 progress benchmarks.
Just because they don’t make a benchmark doesn’t mean they haven’t made progress toward the goal.
As the left-wing-lose-at-any-cost-media-spin-machine reports this catastophic failure of Iraq to meet the benchmarks over the next month try and figure out exactly what the benchmarks are, and if not met how close are they to meeting them. It won’t happen for you.
Hank
Hank, can you explain exactly what are the benchmarks? Because I heard Bush explain it this way:
One of the benchmarks is passing a law to share oil revenue, which is divided in 3 parts: 1) Set up a committee to draft the law, 2) Establish a process for drafting and approving the law, and 3) The committee meets, works out the law, and submits it for approval.
According to Bush, 1) and 2) have been achieved, but the committee has not met even once or written a single word of a first draft of the law, which makes the benchmark 2/3rds complete. So Bush does a little dance and says, “Hooray! Progress!”
Also, I hear sectarian violence is down now that the Baghdad neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed. Hooray! More progress!
With progress like that, who needs setbacks?
Sounds funny coming from the no shades of gray party.
Hank, Have you lost your mind?
I ask that because you’re talking around in circles using the meaningless euphemisms for what is actually the United States being on a murdering spree in Iraq.
Us being there is making things worse and a giant leap toward stability in Iraq will begin when we leave.
The United States being in Iraq is also destablising the entire Middle East.
Hank Price,
Not true. Flat-out. The benchmarks are rated as “not accomplished,” “partly accomplished,” and “fully accomplished.”
You need some better spin, Hank Price.
Success! The country is in only ‘partly’ anarchy!
While on the subject of that “oil revenue” benchmark, here is an interesting article. In part it says, “Although U.S. officials and the mainstream media have generally billed this law as a measure that will equitably distribute Iraq’s massive oil revenues – projected to reach $31 billion this year – between the country’s different sectarian groups, this is far from a complete or accurate picture of its contents.
Rather than originating in Baghdad, the law was conceived within the bowels of the State Department prior to the war. The United States brought in private contractor BearingPoint to assist Iraq’s Ministry of Oil with the actual writing of the text. After its completion, executives from the major U.S. oil companies and the International Monetary Fund got the opportunity to offer their comments on the draft. Only then was the Iraqi Parliament shown the law.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770829027
I suspect. lindainks55, there are not too many State Department employees proficient in the language of oil economics.
Who did you want the State Department to call for advice on oil?
ToysRus?
Should not the Iraqi parliament be able to call in its own experts on the oil question? Should it not be able to draft its own law based upon its experts’ advice? The question underlying this whole thing is whether the Iraqis will continue nationalization of the oil reserves, much as other countries in the regions have, or allow the same to be privatized. This, it seems to me, is the peculiar province of the Iraqi parliament, upon due consideration of the various benefits and burdens each course of action might have upon the country, without the helpful assistance of the State Department or other U.S. government agency acting without invitation (apparently) of the Iraqi government.
True Vaughn, however, the reports I’ve read that all the Iraqi Oil Ministers were at the time under a cloud of suspicion as they were Sunni under the guidance and tutelage of Saddam Hussein.
They have may know what was best for oil economics for Iraq under a dictatorship, but not for a fledgling democracy.
Hank hasn’t lost his mind.
He is just dishonest as hell.
Old Hank and those like him KNEW that we would be garrisoning in Iraq for the long term. Just as it is now coming to that this was bush’s intention all along.
Come on Hank. Be honest where your sock puppet president won’t! Sell the American people on long term occupation in Iraq. Our sacrifice in blood and treasure requires at LEAST that much honesty. For me? I’m sending personal letters to all the branches of service. Stay the hell away from my kid.
JR
Good to see you back… give em’ hell { make em’ feel at home }.
Thanks the kudos Ed. I’m just here for a bit.
Ya know what is really sad? bush COULD have made this work. Americans are good and steadfast folks… so long as you are honest with them. IF this business had been sold to them honestly, they might not be so turned off to Iraq by now.
Wonder if that was the real input of the Cheney “Energy TAsk Force”.
It’s the PNAC (Project for a new American Century) folks Phantom. This was their agenda all along. What is REALLY amazing is that these evil geniuses are so completely clueless. While the American people are good at heart, they are also not terribly informed and are easily manipulated. I’m surprised bushco isn’t selling this as an occupation to guarantee cheap gas. That would be worth a good 10 percent shift in approval rating at least.
JR
Despite what the crazy Zionists say, Islam is a peaceful religion and Arabs are comfortable living with it. For us to impose a complete change of lifestyle is not going to happen, so it’s not a question how we might feel about the way they choose to live, but theirs.
Americans are so inundated with propaganda from the Neocons and crazy Zionists, Islam has been sold to them as some sort of horror movie. Americans don’t even know what 9/11 was all about, thanks to the crazy Zionists controlling our MSM.
Anything can be sold.
Just over at cnn.com (lunch appointment running late) and noted “Breaking News”; basically said there’s a new report out that calls the Iraqi police operationally ineffective and should be disbanded. I’m sure we’re going to have more to read/hear on this as the day progresses.
In the movie, “No end in sight” I thought the most poignant moment was shortly after the invasion when the U.S. authorities were meeting with Iraqis and the Iraqi officials suggested many things that could have helped: secure the munition dumps, don’t disband the Iraqi army, allow the Iraqi army to guard against looting, and other things that Bush refused on ideological grounds. The Iraqis warned us in advance against making our biggest mistakes.
The Iraq officials walked away and said to each other, “These Americans, they have bullets in their eyes.”
I read somewhere that the number of ARI troops has DECREASED. Is that progress?
I’ve been saying it since the beginning. In this endeavor, success is NOT an option. I have come to believe that Iraq is meant to be a continuously dysfunctional state. The contractors rebuild something, the insurgency blows it up, the contractors rebuild it again. Lots of money in that ya know. And hey, it even has a political dividend! Once bush is out and a democrat is likely in? Why in six months or less the majority of people will see whatever happens in Iraq as the fault of that democrat!
After WWll we didn’t brutalize the Japanese, we helped them build an economy and we respected their customs, religion and their persons.
We didn’t bulldoze their houses, murder their families and steal their land.
Big difference between civilized Americans and barbaric crazy Zionist-Jews.
Now the Zionists methods of occupation are being practiced on the Iraqis while Americans are being told the opposite.
What has my attention is Gold moving toward 700 dollars an ounce and Crude moving over 75 dollar a barrel without any apparent pressure.
Even the crazy Zionist-Jews are backing-off a planned slaughter for Gaza refugee Camps, so what are these lunatics up to?
There is pressure, but where is it coming from?
Welcome back Junior!
Will you be with us for a while or will you have to leave before the library closes?
I see that you are still unable to respond on any subject intelligently and therefore you are reduced to nothing more than inane personal attacks.
Don’t worry about the armed forces coming after your boy. They still are doing very well with volunteers.
Hank
Hank, that was away out-of-line…This Iraq thing has reduced you to a wacko.
As it happens, the GAO released a report saying that Bush has been lying about the surge. Violence against civilians has not decreased, and the number of people fleeing their homes has increased.
Can we now agree that Bush is lying about Iraq, or will neocons continue to insist he never lied about anything?
No Hank, I can’t stay to quibble with you. You may feel free to swing away at me in my absence as I am sure you often do.
I made no personal attack. I called you dishonest. Is that incorrect? Am I mistaken that you have earlier and often posted that the US needed to be in the mideast long term?
Oh and just to correct the record, I am not at the library. I’m here for a bit helping my mom. Wanna take a shot at her?
JR, Maybe Hank ought to buy his own bulldozer or borrow one from his Zionist buddies?
Birds of a feather…..
JR,
I’ll take a shot at her…
She dresses you funny.
;->
I have to go and do not know when I will be back.
Be HONEST Hank. You KNOW it is the intention of bush’s handlers to have us in Iraq long term.
You just know that THAT is political suicide.
Hey Hank? My mom says it is too bad that I can’t go out and find a nice rich lady to take care of me. You know, like you did?
Dear Ed,
I actually have access to a very big bulldozer. What did you have in mind?
Hank
Dear Junior,
I didn’t bother to respond to you because you said you weren’t able to stay around, helping your mom and all.
Then you keep firing your inane shots.
What, pray tell, does my believing we have a long term commitment in Iraq have to do with the 18 benchmarks? YOu don’t think calling someone dishonest isn’t a personal attack?
Just wondering, I still love ya,
Hank
And Ed,
What in any of my posts was over the top? That comment coming from you hurts!
Hank
Hank, we have a long term commitment to Iraq to do what, exactly? If we are failing the benchmarks, we are failing the commitment.
Hey leftcoaster,
What’s our long term commitment to Bosnia? We’re still there. The Phillipines, Japan, Germany, Korea? We’re still there.
The stabillity of the Mid East is essential to our economy and national security. Our military presence will be required in the Mid East as long as our groceries come by truck; as long as we drive our SUV’s to the soccer games; as long as you want to date women that aren’t wearing a burka.
Hank
How many of our troops have died in Bosnia? In Korea they serve as a trip wire. Don’t see many dieing in Japan, Germany, or the Phillipines.
All talk, no walk.
Tripwire? Sounds pretty safe to me!
Only lost about 55,000 dead, 110,000 wounded to get to trip wire status in Korea.
How many do you think died in Japan, Germany, or the Phillipines? Compared to previous wars Iraq is a cakewalk. We lose more babies every year because the parents refuse to use carseats than we’ve lost in Iraq the whole war.
Hank
Hank, You’re not ignorant or stupid or childish, so reading you playing into this “benchmark propaganda” is sickening.
For God’s sake, stop offering credibility to that sort of ridiculous nonsense.
Our soldiers are dying, and they deserve better than that from all of us.
They deserve to be brought home.
To justify keeping troops in Iraq because we have troops in other countries seems stupid. I would ask why we still have troops in places like Germany, still waiting for the Russians to invade? Japan, Philippines, Italy, Bosnia, and several dozen countries that the US have no business in, all which the taxpayers foot the bill for.
To justify keeping troops in Iraq because we have troops in other countries seems stupid. I would ask why we still have troops in places like Germany, still waiting for the Russians to invade? Japan, Philippines, Italy, Bosnia, and several dozen countries that the US have no business in, all which the taxpayers foot the bill for.
Hank, Our current foreign policy puts the United States at extreme risk by not restraining Israeli aggression.
The euphemism of “terrorism” is meaningless and discounts our ability to properly assess risks by distorting realities.
The Zionists are playing us for suckers.
Read their newspapers and see for yourself where they brag about how the manipulate American public opinion, while leaching money from our Treasury.
Dear Ed,
I don’t really know how to respond. Benchmark propaganda? Of course it is! The whole purpose of caving in to the left-wing-surrender-before-it’s-too-late-democrat congress was so they could have some arbitrary BS to attack Bush’s position on the war.
What in the hell is the purpose of the damn benchmarks? Sheesh!
I don’t think you’re stupid either. We’ll have to get together sometime and talk. When we have our get together out where I live, come out and eat my hamburgers and drink my beer. We’ll solve the mid east crisis!
Hank
The Republican position apparently is to continue to sacrifice American lives, deplete our Treasury and weaken our national security in pursuit of a goal that the Iraqi people themselves show no interest in achieving.
Benchmarks are used to measure progress or lack thereof.
Americans don’t have any business telling Iraqis how to run their political internal affairs. Our job there is to patrol and provide security. Not to meddle in their politics.
“”"To justify keeping troops in Iraq because we have troops in other countries seems stupid. I would ask why we still have troops in places like Germany, still waiting for the Russians to invade? Japan, Philippines, Italy, Bosnia, and several dozen countries that the US have no business in, all which the taxpayers foot the bill for.”"”
We never had troops in Germany to fend off the Russians. We have troops in Germany to make sure that the Germans don’t get any ideas about marching into Poland again.
Looks like Ron Paul took on the Rep. Bush flunkies over the war issue in the debate.