Posted on 07/09/2007 5:21:51 PM PDT by don-o
WASHINGTON - A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reform, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday.
One likely result of the report will be a vastly accelerated debate among President Bush's top aides on withdrawing troops and scaling back the U.S. presence in Iraq.
The "pivot point" for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15, as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush's so-called "surge" plan is due, but instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment is released, the official said.
"The facts are not in question," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the draft is still under discussion. "The real question is how the White House proceeds with a post-surge strategy in light of the report."
The report, required by law, is expected to be delivered to Capitol Hill by Thursday or Friday, as the Senate takes up a $649 billion defense policy bill and votes on a Democratic amendment ordering troop withdrawals to begin in 120 days.
Also being drafted are several Republican-backed proposals that would force a new course in Iraq, including one by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would require U.S. troops to abandon combat missions. Collins and Nelson say their binding amendment would order the U.S. mission to focus on training the Iraqi security forces, targeting al-Qaida members and protecting Iraq's borders.
"My goal is to redefine the mission and set the stage for a significant but gradual drawdown of our troops next year," said Collins.
GOP support for the war has eroded steadily since Bush's decision in January to send some 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. At the time, Bush said the Iraqis agreed to meet certain benchmarks, such as enacting a law to divide the nation's oil reserves.
This spring, Congress agreed to continue funding the war through September but demanded that Bush certify on July 15 and again on Sept. 15 that the Iraqis were living up to their political promises or forgo U.S. aid dollars.
The official said it is highly unlikely that Bush will withhold or suspend aid to the Iraqis based on the report.
A draft version of the administration's progress report circulated among various government agencies in Washington on Monday.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Monday tried to lower expectations on the report, contending that all of the additional troops had just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress by now.
"You are not going to expect all the benchmarks to be met at the beginning of something," Snow said. "I'm not sure everyone's going to get an `A' on the first report."
In recent weeks, the White House has tried to shore up eroding GOP support for the war.
Collins and five other GOP senators — Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Robert Bennett of Utah, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Pete Domenici of New Mexico — support separate legislation calling on Bush to adopt as U.S. policy recommendations by the Iraq Study Group, which identified a potential redeployment date of spring 2008.
Other prominent Republican senators, including Richard Lugar of Indiana, George Voinovich of Ohio, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snowe of Maine, also say the U.S. should begin redeployments.
Several GOP stalwarts, including Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Christopher Bond of Missouri, Jon Kyl of Arizona and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said they still support Bush's Iraq strategy.
Kyl said he would try to focus this week's debate on preserving vital anti-terrorism programs, including the detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The defense bill is on track to expand the legal rights of those held at the military prison, and many Democrats want to propose legislation that would shut the facility.
"If Democrats use the defense authorization bill to pander to the far left at the expense of our national security, they should expect serious opposition from Republicans," Kyl said.
As the Senate debate began, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee arranged to run television commercials in four states, beginning Tuesday, to pressure Republicans on the war.
The ads are to run in Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire, according to knowledgeable officials, but the DSCC so far has committed to spending a relatively small amount of money, less than $100,000 in all. Barring a change in plans that means the ads would not be seen widely in any of the four states.
The targets include Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Collins of Maine, Sununu of New Hampshire and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. All face re-election next year.
The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, with the overall tally for Iraq alone nearing a half-trillion dollars, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.
The figures call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar province would cost $5.6 billion through the end of September.
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Associated Press reporters Pauline Jelinek, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Lee and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.
mara LIARSON on Brit’s Special Report kept trying to spew this crap the entire segment tonight. This was in the DNC talking point fax from early this morning.
LLS
Course they won't. It's just tax dollars they're tossing down this money pit.
A legislature having trouble getting things done? When has this ever happened anywhere before? ;-)
Mark my words:
We will rue the day these politicians and other Americans began to undercut our troops and the mission.
Think Chamberlain.
Think Post-Vietnam Democrats.
figured it’d come to this.
A swift and decisive military campaign followed by some of the most inept and clownish post-conflict planning we will ever see.
I just want our troops to know they exceeded our expectations.....like they always do. They did everything that was asked of them, and more.
Utter BS.
Words marked.
It’s a stampede. And I do not see any turning the herd this time.
We’ll see. If the GOP abandons Bush on Iraq, I abandon the GOP permanently.
The Base still doesn't believe that any one is that stupid, but they are starting to appreciate the fact that the Democrats like in 1864 have bet everything on the United States being defeated.
This is a losing hand, and one that always draws the most severe sanction the society can dispense. The Republicans tried to bet against the US in WWII for politics, and it cost them 40 years till they could get back into power in Congress.
You beat me to it. I’d like to stop paying taxes and have my records bleached from all federal offices until the legislature starts doing its job instead of being a partisan black hole.
We need to whip the herd as we just did on immigration.
The President will veto anyway but we have to fire some asses in '08.
Some spiritual insight into what is happening.
This is the time that I am going to favor those who are mine; those who presented themselves daily before me, offering up themselves as a living sacrifice; the sacrifice that is well-pleasing and acceptable in my sight. This is that sacrifice that I am now going to receive and favor. Just like Cain’s sacrifice, I am going to reject those who have offered unto me that thing that was only favorable in their own eyes. Now is the time that I am going to exalt my sheep with my favor; those who have allowed for me to prepare their hearts to receive the love of my favor, they shall receive the fullness of kingdom. It is not going to go well for those who have openly mocked me with their unbelief of my words and their doubts concerning my promises. I am going to spew these out of my mouth. This is the time that I am going to judge all those who have refused to judge themselves; the judgment of my correction that would have allowed for them to escape the coming judgment and shame.
Great storms of fire coming down upon all those who have mocked me in unbelief and refused my love. My love would have cast out all of their fears had they received my love, but now they shall see great hurricanes of fire arising and coming forth in their thoughts with all manner of fears, and anxieties, and stress, and terror, and worry; from which they shall not be able to find any rest. Those wicked ones who refused to take up their crosses to decrease in self, having hardened their hearts towards the love of my correction, shall have great exploding volcanoes of hatred and bitterness coming forth suddenly in them, just as Cain had, when they witness the great favor of my love coming upon those wise ones who prepared their hearts for my coming. Then shall come great tornadoes of confusion and madness into the hearts and minds of the uncorrected who would not have my love to rule over them, when they see the light of my judgment shining upon the shame of their “self-love”; the love which they trusted and delighted in rather than me”, says the Lord. “O they praised me with their mouths and they honored me with their lips, but their hearts would not draw near to me nor allow for my love to enter in; now they shall the reward of fire instead of the refreshing water of life.
Courtesy of Mitt Jefford’s prophetic gift
Why don't they just pass legislation requiring the islamo-fascists to abandon their jihadi attacks?
Lamar is one of the lost.
I have labeled him a muddleheaded meddler.
Hence forth he is known as muddlehead.
“The facts are not in question,” the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity
Anonymous Democrat Mole.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1862769/posts
Hopefully, something can happen with the surge and we do not lose our resolve.
And our politicians should not be running Iraq.
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