WASHINGTON, July 9, 2007
Report: Iraq Has Not Met Benchmarks
Draft Report To Congress To Conclude Iraq Has Not Met Targets For Political And Economic Reform
-
Play CBS Video
Video
GOP Support Fades For Iraq War
Opposition to the president's strategy for Iraq is growing, and it looks like the time for the troop surge to work is running out. Jim Axelrod reports.
-
Video
Meeting Goals In Iraq
CBS News Military Analyst Maj. Mike Lyons (Ret.) weighs in on U.S. goals in Iraq and how it may - or may not- lead to a troop withdrawl.
-
Photo
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., right, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., discusses legislation to change the course of the War in Iraq, Monday, July 9, 2007, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)
-
Interactive
Iraq: 4 Years Later
The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
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.
A senior Pentagon official tells CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod a debate is already underway to determine what conditions must exist, short of victory, to begin pulling troops out of 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.
A draft version of the report, expected to be presented to Congress on Thursday or Friday, circulated among various government agencies in Washington on Monday.
"The facts are not in question," the official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The real question is how the White House proceeds with a post-surge strategy in light of the report."
The official said it is highly unlikely that Bush will withhold or suspend some aid to the Iraqis based on the report, as he can do under the law.
As the White House prepared its first major progress report for Congress, war-weary Republicans are focusing their efforts on protecting unrelated anti-terrorism programs while Democrats are trying again to pass legislation ordering troop withdrawals.
Simmering in the background is a growing sentiment among at least some Republicans that the U.S. strategy is failing and Bush should adopt a new policy before they must face their constituents during the August recess.
Clearly political support is weakening inside the administration, adds Axelrod. A senior administration official who has been to Iraq many times tells CBS News the Iraqis have made the surge "a joke," adding that they lack the ability, the firepower and the discipline to take over anything.
The Senate began debate Monday on legislation that would authorize $649 billion in defense programs. By week's end, senators are expected to vote on an amendment by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that would order troop withdrawals to begin in four months, with the goal of completing the pullout by spring 2008.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Video and Galleries from Iraq After Saddam
-
Photos
Iraq Photos: July 6?July 12
-
Photos
Iraq Photos: June 29-July 5
-
Photos
Iraq Photos: June 22 ? June 28
- Latest in Iraq After Saddam
- Bombs Claim 50 in Iraq
- Biden Meets with Key U.S. Leaders in Iraq
- Senate Investigates Blackwater Subsidiary
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 232 CommentsBlaming the catastrophic illegal invasion on the Iraqi puppet-officials is pathetic.
What a bunch of craven dopes!
www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow
Wait a minute....is that Iraq or the Bush administration? Hmmm...maybe they've adopted American style democracy after all?
Shame on Americans for falling for it, shame on the media for carrying the administration's water, but greatest shame on the crooks, liars and SOBs in the White House for creating and implementing it all.
God and the planet: please forgive us for what we have done.
no matter what anybody else says
we still love y'all here down south.
we elected you, we love you and we still support you.
signed: the south
Too bad they had to execute Saddam. That boy knew how to rap some knuckles and get the Muslims into line.
Of course the Iraqis weren't as good as the Saudis and the rich Arabs at knowing how to use the Blacks in a servitude position. Nothing a Muslim likes better than a Black slave.
but you'll find monuments to jefferson davis and george bush, jr. all over the republican, christian south.
i don't understand!
white trash, war makers, phony christian creeps...
nothing good comes out of the south!
they still love bush in the south.
all those swift boat republican creeps.
all those pat robertson people.
all those rush limbaugh snakes.
ha,ha,ha.
what a cesspool the south is.
anybody got a confederate flag so i can wipe my azz?
war, hate, arrogance, phony christian creeps...
nothing good comes out of the south!
Posted by caykasagi
You're worthless - How's the weather in Tehran?
3) Apologize to the world for our country%u2019s many grave mistakes, and beg the world community to provide security forces and observers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the U.S., while we immediately withdraw all U.S. troops and agents from foreign positions, and hold fresh and legitimate elections in all three countries.
4) Seize and liquidate the assets of war profiteering corporations like Halliburton, Bechtel, Exxon-Mobile, Blackwater, Chevron-Texaco, Wackenhut, the Lincoln Group, the Carlysle Group, FOX, General Electric, and Lockheed-Martin, and use the proceeds to create a reparations fund for the many surviving victims of the %u2018Project for a New American Century%u2019 plan for global fascism. The potential recipients would include victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, the U.S., and elsewhere.
Here is a four-point plan for resolving the Bush regime's nightmares and debacles in Iraq/Afghanistan/U.S./elsewhere: (1 of 2)
1) Jail the Bush-puppet, while he awaits war-crimes proceedings, along with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wurmser, Gonzales, Baker, Perle, Ashcroft, Frum, Armitage, Rice, Kristol, Tenet, Libby, Abizaid, Murdock, Khalilzad, Myers, Poindexter, Kagan, Negroponte, Wolfowitz, and all of the other people, who have so badly disgraced our country, by waging fraud-based illegal war of aggression.
These people have also conspired to aggressively undermine our own Constitution, primarily at the behest of Corporate greed and religious delusion, resulting in several crippling moral, military, and economic defeats for the U.S. These people represent the greatest terrorist threat to the globe at the moment, by far.
2) Compel any politician who cooperated with the criminal Bush League, to step down in disgrace (by way of torch-bearing angry mob, if necessary).
The nation gave the dems a job and control of congress to bring this awful and counterproductive war to an end. Can you imagine what we could have accomplished in the last found years? What those countless billions could have bought? The wasted life and endless misery that could have been avoided?
My conscience is clean, as I have opposed this war since before the first shot was fired. If you supported this war, now might be a good time to make some amends (start by demanding a pull out date and impeachment of Bush/Cheney.)
If you still support this war, now might be a good time to see a psychiatrist. You are obviously in need of professional help.
1) john wilkes boothe
2) jimmy swaggart
3) george bush, jr.
4) katherine harris
5) george wallace
6) grand wizard of the k.k.k.
7) tom delay
8) pat robertson
9) rush limbaugh
0) jerry falwell
all southern, all christian, all snakes...
white trash, war making, slave state, republican christian snakes.
ha,ha,ha.
nothing good comes out of the south!
NO!!!
REALLY???????? well I am SO surprised...
NOT!
Posted by caykasagi at 08:37 PM : Jul 09, 2007
caykasagi, you and George have alot in common!
Nice...way to disparage those serving bud, nice job. Either one of my brothers serving right now probably weigh less than half of your wife...that's what you're really bitter about isn't it bro?
so bush moved to the south and became a big man.
rednecks, reborns, war makers, christian creeps, arrogant slave state republican snakes...
bush's kind of people!
yep, the south elected bush, the south supports bush, the south loves bush.
war, hate, slimy christian hypocrite creeps!
nothing good comes out of the south!
Re: "so I just want to know how we disengage from the fight we're in and still "fight Al Qaeda in Iraq"
That is an easy one. We simply send the Ghostbusters, and of course you, to go and battle this imaginary foe in Iraq.
They were singing Torah Torah Torah
Just Joking.
Sending you to Iraq would have peripheral benefits, as well.
If you are really a college professor, then sending you to battle ghosts in Iraq would also be a major victory in the 'War on Stupidity'.
If you are really a teacher, then your school must be a real embarrassment. It would almost certainly have to be a faithed-based institution.
And what happens the day after we pull out? I congratulate you on being right about this war being a mistake, but you were right, but not for the right reasons...you didn't know Saddam didn't have WMD, neither did France or Russia either (they were paid off, we know it wasn't moral as Russia firebombed Grozny for the 10th time, and France was mostly worried they'd have to surrender for the what, 100th time?). The Iraq invasion was a mistake because there didn't turn out to be WMD stockpiles and because Iraqis have proven too weak to fight for freedom and democracy rather than their Muslim sects; but reversing our mistake of invading by just pulling out doesn't cure the problem; since by removing the brutal Saddam we have insured that when we leave, Iraqi Hezbollah (Sadr's group) and Al Qaeda stay in his stead; then what do we do? Just as brutal and brainwashed by Islamofascists, and committed to terrorism...where does that leave us if we just left Iraq as it sits today? This war sucks and has been managed like dog$hi+; but what choice do we have but to not leave right now (if you have any foresight that is)...
You're delusional...not point in talking to someone blinded by the MoveOn.org crowd...just tell me who it is raising black Al Qaeda flags over cities like Ramadi, Al Qaim, and most recently Baqouba, and who was it imposing tyrannical Taliban-style religious edicts on the people of those areas while they were in control - I'm sure it was just normal everyday Iraqi citizens doing that; they just decided overnight to go from a secular Arab nation to an Islamic fundamentalist society...that makes more sense...It also makes no sense, you're right, that Al Qaeda, who wants to do nothing more than kill Americans and topple the moderate Middle East regimes who don't follow their tyrannical views, would get involved in Iraq - where they can kill Americans and establish safe havens in the heart of the middle east they want to radically change - yep, from their strategic view of the "battle", definitely wouldn't want to get involved in Iraq...
he must really hate the symbol of evil encarnate ( george bush, jr. )
actually, when i look at that hateful visage of george bush
i too hate that evil freak.
bush, evangelist snakes, dixie republican creeps...
they'll all hateful, evil snakes.
ha,ha,ha.
nothing good comes out of the south!
Re: "you didn't know Saddam didn't have WMD"
Sure we did. There was not a single claim made by the chicken-hawks, that withstood the slightest amount of scrutiny; much like your unsupportable and moronic claims about Iran, Syria, 'al-Qaeda-in-Iraq', etc.
Anyone who bothered to investigate was easily able to identify this hoax, ahead of the illegal invasion.
Only the criminally stupid had to wait until today for this revelation.
Glad you think I'm a professor, means I'm educated, because I'M sure you're a HS dropout who gets his info from left-wing conspiracy sites.
And "faith-based" - where does that come from!? Nowhere on any post I've made do I ever invoke religion; would be nice for you though if you were able to pigeon-hole me so easily though wouldn't it; makes it much easier to ignore valid points when you're brainwashed and can, in your own mind, paint someone else as the same doesn't it?
You have your warped view, and you're welcome to it; it is America...luckily for you you've found the right forum to spread it, plenty of others to share in the looney toons...
Posted by fredgrad2000 at 09:04 PM : Jul 09, 2007
You don't know that. I guessed that Saddam's WMD capability was greatly exaggerated by the special intel offices set up by Rumsfeld and Cheney. You know how I knew? Because I knew who PNAC are. I knew they wanted to invade Iraq. I knew they would do anything to get their agenda moving - including connecting Saddam to 9/11. I wasn't surprised when GW started talking about going into Iraq. I believed that Saddam might have had some WMD, but nothing - nowhere near what the administration was claiming. Entropy tends to accelerate in closed environment - which is was Iraq was before the war. Biological weapons need sophisticated, expensive labs. Missiles need maintenance and upkeep. Nuclear weapons labs need money, talent and resources. Saddam had NONE of this. There were no WMDs because the critical structure needed to support them was non-existent.
Don't tell me what I was right about and how - because you don't know.
Re: "just tell me who it is raising black Al Qaeda flags over cities like Ramadi, Al Qaim, and most recently Baqouba"
My guess is 'al-CIA'da' and 'al-Mossada'. Where is your support for this foolish and nonsensical claim?
Since you were entrenched in stupidity for 4 /12 years, what makes you so confident that your current idiotic analysis is any better? Shouldn%u2019t you look to those who were not as easily duped as you for help?
Are you unable to learn from your mistakes?
How about the claims made by Hillary and crew?
"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program.
He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
the bush loving south sees that they've accomplished their mission in iraq.
now, they're gathering all their right wing republicans and christian creeps in south carolina...
to plot the next humilliating failure for america.
leave it to those southern creeps to do their worst to america.
war, hate, arrogance, reborns and rednecks...
nothing good comes out of the south!
Re: "How about the claims made by Hillary...?"
Well, I guess that your reliance on the claims of this AIPAC/Corporate-owned chicken-hawk shows that you are and equal opportunity dupe.
Posted by fredgrad2000 at 09:14 PM : Jul 09, 2007
I find it incredbile that those who defend the war, rationlize it, excuse the architects, and bash those that have been right all along still somehow have the audacity to accuse others of a "warped view" and being "brainwashed."
Of the two of us, Fred, who was duped? Who turned out to be the tool? And the fool? It was you. I realize you could never come to terms with the reality of this, but rest assured much of the nation has. You kind of right-wing idiocy will be marginalized more and more as time passes.
What you and people like you thought would bring prestige, power and control will instead be your downfall.
a whole case of azzwipe designed like the confederate flag.
now when i wipe my azz, it's pure delight.
better than sexx!
ha,ha,ha.
war, hate, republican christian snakes...
nothing good comes out of the south!
The fact that you don't have the strategic vision to understand why Iran and Al Qaeda would OF COURSE be in Iraq after we got rid of Saddam is what is scary here.
Iran had the opportunity after Saddam was overthrown to empower a Shiite majority that would be friendly and subservient to its own regime, ensure it no longer had an enemy on its western border. The Iranian regime views the US as its biggest threat; so as the Central Bank of Terror in say 2003/2004; do you think they wanted a battle-ready, victorious, unencumbered force of US troops on its west AND east (Afghanistan). Do you think they wanted a REAL Shiite Democracy next door as an example to its own oppressed Shiite population? The answer is simple, help destablize Iraq long enough and help kill US soldiers to wear down the US public and at the same time keep US troops occupied; hold up victory long enough and the US public will tire (like a 3 year old), we'll leave and leave them as the main power broker; where they will ensure their Shiite allies are in-charge and that there is no real democracy next door to influence their own population. That's just simple logic...
Al Qaeda's motivation I have already posted...your choice not to believe it makes it no less true.
jefferson davis lost his,
johnson lost his
bush will lose his.
the south has lost every war they started.
idiot southern creeps are only good for sunday afternoon parades
in their tight-butt uniforms.
ha,ha,ha.
war, division, arrogance, phony christian creeps, crooked republican snakes...
nothing good comes out of the south!
bush, delay, swaggart, robertson, foley, harris, falwell...
don't you think it's time to be rid of those southern states?
after all, nothing good ever comes out of the south!
Posted by fredgrad2000 at 09:24 PM : Jul 09, 2007
Which makes the war in Iraq all that more tragic. The Bush administration played right into Al Qaeda's hands.
To say nothing of the leaps and bounds China and India have accomplished while we've struggled in Iraq. Again, what could have been accomplished if we would have taken that money, power and talent and put it into something else? Instead, we just threw it all down the drain.
Freddy boy - you, your kind and your idiot president has made bin Laden and very happy man. How does that make you feel?
Lets get ourselves behind a movement to rid us of the Bush influence. Enough!! Please!
Short of impeachment is there any other way to get rid of Mr. Bush? (Vote of NO CONFIDENCE, Etc? AKA Great Britian?)Whatever it takes lets do it. Our president has let all of us in our country down. Our entire way of life is going down fast. Time to change. This is what Democracy is all about.
Since when has it been a sign of greatness to be less stupid than someone else? Whoever we place in control of this great nation needs to behave and decide well, not just appear less stupid than the other side and blame their predecessor.
Re: "The fact that you don't have the strategic vision to understand why Iran and Al Qaeda would OF COURSE be in Iraq"
Claiming what 'would' happen, and assessing what 'is' happening, while offering support for your claims, are two VERY different things. A 'fact' is something that can be supported and/or tested. Your blather is completely devoid of anything resembling a 'fact'.
Your faith-based stupidity has left you looking like a complete fool, and as gullible as they come, yet you insist on relying on your own imagination and stupidity as a basis for your future analysis.
Children can learn, dogs can learn, even rats, but apparently this is beyond your capability. Yet you press on as if you know something about anything, when you clearly don't.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- next
See all 232 Comments