Iraq Report To Be Mixed Bag ~ Better than the Buzz...progress on Security items...

Captain's Quarters ^ | July 11, 2007 7:47 PM | Ed Morrissey

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The White House report on Iraq will show mixed progress on benchmarks demanded by Congress, ABC News reports tonight. The Iraqi government has made satisfactory progress on almost half of the benchmarks, almost all related to security, while disappointing on most of the political goals:

An eagerly awaited White House report on Iraq will be released tomorrow, which will claim the Iraqi government has made satisfactory progress on 8 of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress.

This is the first assessment of the Iraqi government's success rate since President Bush ordered the troop surge in January. White House officials tell ABC News' Jonathan Karl the report will cite encouraging signs that should eventually lead to a reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq.

The report notes that progress is "satisfactory" on eight of the benchmark criteria, mostly dealing with the Iraqi security forces.

This actually sounds better than the initial buzz on the report. Early rumors had Iraq failing to make progress on any of the eighteen benchmarks. ABC has eight apiece as satisfactory and unsatisfactor, with two as "mixed".

The successes are obvious. Chief among them is the reversal of fortunes in Anbar, which many had considered so intractable that it should have just been abandoned. Now the province has been rid of terrorists and life has begun to return to normal. The move to Diyala and Baqubah appear to be having the same effect there. The report stresses that the full complement of surge forces has only been in Iraq for three weeks, and that these early results show the potential of wider success against terrorists -- and that they have even garnered support from native insurgents eager to drive out foreigners.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

NEWS!!!

[bnelson44]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1864597/posts

[pissant]

Tell congress to piss up a rope. They get to fund or not fund. After that, they need to STFU.

[MetalHeadConservative35]

Iraq Report will probably look like this :

troops losing blah blah blah, nancy pelosi is not happy that were not kissing al qaeda's ass blah blah blah, americans hate their own country yada yada yada,

you know, im tired of the anti-war crap,if its not the old yuppie scumbags trying to relive vietnam its the current generation of wannabe hippies wanting it to be vietnam or some crap, the enemy is lucky i wasn't president on 9-11, because all that would be left of iraq/iran and most of the middle east is one gigantic lifeless wasteland.

just my opinion,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks...

[NurdlyPeon]

Timetables? Why the hell don’t we set some timetables for OUR government? Start with the border fence.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks E.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

How about eliminating earmarks in Congress...the Dems promised on that,...now they are trying to hide them...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Wall Street Journal :

The 'Benchmark' Excuse
Crocker and Petraeus speak some truths, if Senators are listening.

*************************EXCERPT**************************

Thursday, July 12, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq, is a 36-year career diplomat who has served under seven administrations in Iran, Syria, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Pakistan. He's no partisan gunslinger. So it's worth listening to his views as Congressional Democrats and a growing number of Republicans press for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq on the excuse that the Iraqi government hasn't met a set of political "benchmarks."

"The longer I'm here, the more I'm persuaded that Iraq cannot be analyzed by these kinds of discrete benchmarks," Mr. Crocker told the New York Times's John Burns in an interview on Saturday, referring to pending Iraqi legislation on an oil-sharing agreement and a relaxation of de-Baathification laws. "You could not achieve any of them, and still have a situation where arguably the country is moving in the right direction. And conversely, I think you could achieve them all and still not be heading towards stability, security and overall success in Iraq."

Mr. Crocker's comments are a useful reminder of the irrelevance--and disingenuousness--of much Washington commentary on Iraq. For proponents of early withdrawal, the "benchmarking" issue has provided a handy excuse to make the Iraqi government rather than al Qaeda the main culprit in the violence engulfing their country. A forthcoming Administration report indicating lagging political progress is certain to be seized on by Congress as it takes up a defense spending bill and debates an amendment ordering troop withdrawals by the fall. A proposal to mandate extended times between deployments (and thus force withdrawal) failed narrowly in the Senate yesterday, though not before winning the support of seven Republicans.

[Allegra]

We saw it last week. The team I'm on even contributed to it.

The truth will be in there. :-)

[madmominct]

Why don’t you run now? You’ve got my vote!

[EQAndyBuzz]

So basically Iraq accomplished more then the newly elected Congress and in less time.

Won’t be seeing that on page 1 of the NYSlimes.

[Valin]

The longer I’m here, the more I’m persuaded that Iraq cannot be analyzed by these kinds of discrete benchmarks,” Mr. Crocker told the New York Times’s John Burns in an interview on Saturday, referring to pending Iraqi legislation on an oil-sharing agreement and a relaxation of de-Baathification laws. “You could not achieve any of them, and still have a situation where arguably the country is moving in the right direction. And conversely, I think you could achieve them all and still not be heading towards stability, security and overall success in Iraq.”

Gosh, you mean it’s not going to look like Iowa! Then I guess we’re doomed and should just pull out.
/sarcasm

[Valin]

the enemy is lucky i wasn’t president on 9-11, because all that would be left of iraq/iran and most of the middle east is one gigantic lifeless wasteland.

It’s just the enemy that’s lucky...it’s all sane people. You do know that OBL expected and hoped for just such a response? When it didn’t happen he lost.

[april15Bendovr]

Democrats equal cheerleaders for failure

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping. September is around the corner. I can't see the Iraqi government doing much more then they have.
Those that where oppressed and held under the thumb of Saddam now are expected to jump in and perform governmental functions many of them are ill equiped to handle by all indications.
Yet, it does appear many of the broken systems are slowly being rebuilt.
Like any new form of government being embraced by a people things take time to work out. Their circumstances rule out any quick fix all process from achieving any long term meaningful results.
The national sentiments shown toward ridding the country of al Qaeda in itself could be considered a parallax, and perhaps a paradigm shift.
To many things are expected in to short a period of time.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

For the Democrats,....facts don’t matter anyway!...It’s about their enhancing their position of power,...anyway they can....

[Marine_Uncle]

And that is something we simply have to live with. Many Americans don’t hold that view, so the creeps get away with just about anything.