The report on Congress that the Pentagon was required to release per the latest Congressional infusion of cash ($80-some billion) has
finally reached Capitol Hill.
Its 23-page report -- the most comprehensive public assessment yet by the military establishment of progress in Iraq -- was more than a week overdue. In it, the Pentagon cited progress on political, economic and security fronts. But it did not say how soon Iraqi security forces will be sufficiently trained to defend the country without the direct assistance of American troops.
23 pages? That's, uh, pretty short. Not to mention, the most important part is classified.
U.S. officers have developed a method of calculating the combat readiness of the approximately 76,700 Iraqi Army troops, but the Pentagon said it "should not and must not" publicly disclose specific data. . . .
Democratic critics of Bush administration Iraq policy lashed out at the Pentagon for refusing to publicly release a detailed assessment of the readiness of Iraqi security forces.
So the whole point of this report was so that Congress could gauge the progress Rummy was making toward having Iraq be able to defend itself from the terrorists that now infest it. But the part of the report that deals with this is classified and can't be read by Congress.
So in other words, this is just a bunch of BS designed to get Rummy out of his legal obligations to Congress.