Lead story in Thursday's Washington Post:
Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.
Time to lower the bench?
Note story not online yet but should be soon at http:///...
The story goes on to quote White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe bitterly complaining that the GAO was fueled by "difficult congressionally mandated measurement"
Yeah, they tried to be accurate, apparently. Damn, that sucks for Bush.
The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmarks report the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.
three benchmarks achieved according to the DRAFT (soon to be watered down) GAO report:
One of eight political benchmarks — the protection of the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature
The report says Iraq has met only two of nine security benchmarks.
This despite the Pentagon touting much progress in that area.
And even more interesting is who leaked it and why:
The 69-page draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is still undergoing review at the Defense Department, which may ask that parts of it be classified or request changes in its conclusions. ...
The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.
Are you saying the Bush administration would do that?
Isn't that kind of.... dishonest?
The report refutes claims by the Bush administration that attacks have significantly diminished, saying the average daily rate is about the same as before the "surge," the Rovian term for the huge U.S. escalation.
Not only that, the number of Iraqi army units capable of operating independently actually dropped from 10 before the escalation to six now.
(The July White House report cited a "slight decline" in that area.)