Posted on 06/17/2008 10:47:49 AM PDT by george76
Democrats no longer talk of the 18 benchmarks for measuring progress in Iraq because so much progress has now taken place.
Way back in the dark days of 2007, when the only popular question about the Iraq war concerned the degree of tragedy, Congress’s Iraq “benchmarks” were all the rage among Democrats. Every argument against a continued U.S. presence in Iraq was constructed around the Maliki administration’s apparent inability to meet the political and security-based milestones as outlined by America’s Democratic-majority Congress.
Then something happened. The gains of the troop surge allowed the Iraqi government and citizenry to implement the security measures and legislative acts called for by the U.S. The benchmark line of argument quietly died. Here, then, is the brief life and glorious death of the great benchmark trope.
In mid-May 2007, Congress passed bill H.R. 2206, which included 18 benchmarks intended to gauge success in the security and political reconciliation of Iraq. Some of the benchmarks were broadly worded calls for beefed-up security, while others cited very specific goals.
Petraeus defanged anti-war Democrats by calling for a troop drawdown starting mid-2008. Because Petraeus had realized that benchmarks weren’t the most useful metric ...
Well, if the benchmarks were all-important to Democrats in the fall of 2007, they have become meaningless to them in 2008. When is the last time you’ve heard a benchmark reckoning from Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi? The reason for the deafening silence on this matter is simple. The military and political progress in Iraq has proved so monumental that the majority of the benchmarks have now been met.
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Robbed of their benchmark-rage
The U. S. media has an agenda that has nothing to do with reporting the “news”. One of the lead stories in all forms of media for the past few days was about gays marrying in California. Now, seriously, who really cares?
That shuffling noise in the background is the sound of Goal Posts being moved...
Not that anyone is going to know about it.
In fact, that roast....the big one might be better left for the future.
bump
This does not matter, the media will ignore it, and the dems will just think of an obscure negative from the situation and focus on it. Yet again, it will be pushed to the side to the tune of “Democrats are all knowing and infallable”. What’s the point of all of this when it’s ignored all of the time?
They will never run out of lies or people willing to believe them.
The gains of the troop surge allowed the Iraqi government and citizenry to implement the security measures and legislative acts called for by the U.S. The benchmark line of argument quietly died... In mid-May 2007, Congress passed bill H.R. 2206, which included 18 benchmarks intended to gauge success in the security and political reconciliation of Iraq. Some of the benchmarks were broadly worded calls for beefed-up security, while others cited very specific goals... if the benchmarks were all-important to Democrats in the fall of 2007, they have become meaningless to them in 2008. When is the last time you’ve heard a benchmark reckoning from Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi? The reason for the deafening silence on this matter is simple. The military and political progress in Iraq has proved so monumental that the majority of the benchmarks have now been met.The surge? Oh yeah... President Bush ordered that not long after the 2006 election, when he became a Lame Duck. Lucky for the Demwits that he's so weak. ;') Thanks geo.
The point is, *we* know it. The Demwits rely on the stupidity and credulousness of their small core of supporters and their partisan media shills, but that party is in the minority and has been for a long time.
bttt
bttt
Harry Reid’s benchmark is on his backside!
1. Destroy SH and gain a new Iraq as an ally in the region
2. Get SA and other ME countries on board in the WOT
3. Undermine terror funding from ME.
4. Marginalize or co-op Syria and Iran and get everyone else, like Jordan and Pakistan, more fully behind the WOT.
5. Drain the swamp of poverty, humiliation and western blame that feeds terror recruiting and funding.
6. Destroy open AND covert state support for terror.
Iraq ping.
Bookmark! Thanks for the good news!
Earlier news:
MILITARY: Charges against Haditha battalion commander dropped
US-Iraq security pact 'not dead,' deal ready in July: Iraqi FM ( Hoshyar Zebari )
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