Report: Slow Progress On Iraq Benchmarks

White House Issues Discouraging Iraq Report A Day After Bush Touts Success

(CBS/AP)  The White House told Congress Friday that Iraqi leaders gained little new ground on key military and political goals, a discouraging assessment a day after President Bush announced that progress justifies keeping a large U.S. military presence there.

The report underscored the difficulty of Mr. Bush's argument that continued American sacrifice was creating space for Iraqi leaders to make gains on tamping down the sectarian fighting that leaves Iraq persistently fractured and violent. Mr. Bush reinforced that theme in an appearance Friday at a Marine base in Quantico, Va.

"There's a lot of courage in Iraq," he said after having lunch with about 250 Marines, family members and officers. "The Iraqis are in the fight, but I also made it clear to them that we expect the Iraqi government to enhance national reconciliation through the passage of law."

At the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Michigan, Vice President Dick Cheney said "the troop surge has achieved solid results and in a relatively short period of time."

Their optimistic view was contradicted somewhat by the administration's release Friday of a required status report on Iraqi benchmarks.

The first assessment, in July, showed the Iraqi government was making satisfactory progress toward meeting eight of 18 goals and unsatisfactory progress on eight others. Two others couldn't be rated for performance.

Friday's follow-up report to Congress concluded that Iraqis have done enough to move only one benchmark - allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to hold government positions - from the unsatisfactory to satisfactory column.

The shift was due to a pact made last month among leading Iraqi politicians from all major sects. Iraqi officials have announced similar deals in the past only to have them fall apart.

"The overarching goal of de-Baathification reform is political accommodation between the Shia and Sunni communities," the report said. "The leaders' agreement combined with the return of former Baathists to civic life is a significant step in that regard."

Bush officials said there hadn't been nearly enough time between the July report and now - just two months - for more improvement. White House press secretary Tony Snow said in a statement accompanying the report that there have been other, equally important developments, including passage of a budget, the sharing of oil revenues among the provinces even without legislation and local reconciliation efforts that could trickle up to Baghdad.

"These are precisely the 'effects' the benchmarks were intended to produce, even if the formal benchmarks themselves have not been met," Snow said.

In a separate report, the State Department concluded Friday that religious freedom has sharply deteriorated in Iraq over the past year.

In the president's 18-minute address Thursday, he said 2,200 Marines will come home from Anbar province this month, an Army brigade of about 3,500 will begin leaving soon for a total of 5,700 troops home by Christmas.

All of these troops were due to come home anyway, reports CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, but they are not being replaced.

Five more combat brigades plus support troops will be home by June for a total of at least 27,000. That will leave about 130,000 troops in Iraq, roughly the same number that were there when the surge began.

Democrats termed Mr. Bush's modest approach unacceptable.

"There is no plan 'to win,' " said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del, a Democratic presidential candidate and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. "No plan how to leave. No plan how to end this. It's just a plan to keep ... all the venom from spilling out over the region, and we're using somewhere between 160,000 to 130,000 troops to do that. The bottom line of it is that we are no safer."

Friday's report said: "What is important is the overall trajectory which, under our present strategy, has begun to stabilize and turn upward, compared to the deteriorating trajectory seen over the course of 2006."

Democrats, still unable to muster enough votes to force an end to the war, hope to win veto-proof support for some sort of anti-war legislation. Debate is expected to resume next week in the Senate. One proposal is expected to narrow the mission, for a presumably smaller U.S. force, to only training Iraq's military and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists. Another would require troops spend as much time at home as they do in combat.

"Democrats know that they do not at this point have the votes in the Senate to force the president to go faster," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer.

Mr. Bush said in Thursday night's speech that the U.S. engagement will stretch beyond his presidency. But he hinted further reductions were possible before he leaves office.

He said his decisions would be guided by the principle of "return on success" - the rhetorical replacement for his oft-repeated condition that coalition forces would only "stand down" as Iraqi troops "stand up."

[prinzowhales]

''Progress?''--One million dead, four million refugees, and these animals dare to speak of ''progress''!!? The Washington Regime has made a charnel house of Iraq and while Americans dither about which War Pig they will select to run the two wings of the Oligarchy''s Demo-publican Party, more are dying everyday in this, the Stupid Peoples'' War for Oil, Israel and Opium.

Troops Home Now! It is a crime to follow an illegal order! It is a breach of international law, the Nuremburg Principles to launch a war of aggression... and the Washington Regime has launched two of them and been rewarded with a second term...the fault lies with those of you who vote for the mainstream Republican and Democratic candidates and cast all principle aside for the hope that your ''man'' would win...and, in a sense, this is emblematic of a nation that no longer places law above men, but men above the law--and the very worst ones imaginable.

[twylacrat]

Brain1014: YOUR president is my EMPLOYEE, and a temporary one at that. The president and congress should work TOGETHER. It''s the job of both to do the "WILL OF THE PEOPLE", not pursue their own private agendas.

[drummer94]

How can the puppet and puppeteer stand in front of America and lie about Iraq, and the very next day, with a required progress report, have those lies confirmed? Is America really dumber than a box of hammers? Or do they just think we are?

[drummer94]

cturner3rd: That is exactly what loony-toon and the gas-house kids didn''t figure on. The country doesn''t want us and they can''t grasp the concept of democracy.

[cturner3rd]

The Iraqi government issued a report on the performance of the US occupation. Loosely translated, it''s summarized below.

"The criminal thugs who seized power in the US in the disputed US election of 2000 have caused the deaths of nearly 1 million Iraqi citizens. Bombings, torture, murder, starvation, and disease are daily occurences in the lives of the survivors since the illegal US-led invasion. The country''s infrastructure has been destroyed, medical care is non-existent, and there is no functioning government. If this is what the US means by ''democracy'' then for Allah''s sake take your democracy somewhere else. You have earned our endless hatred."

Folks, no one in the world cares about George Bush''s legacy, the Dem vs. GOP blame game, the 2008 election, the ''credibility'' of the US, and all the other junk the media and pundits in the US chatter about endlessly. The only thing the world cares about is the plight of the suffering people of Iraq. Your only decision is whether you want to continue to support the war criminals who created this disaster or work to try to fix it.

[glossypan]

Hey, US taxpayers, enjoy paying 103,000,000 dollars per day (calculated on Series I bonds) to service the interest on the Iraq occupation debt. Glad you like it, George Bush has plenty more where that came from. Your children and their children will love it too. Send a thank you note to the Fiscally Responsible Republicans who gave you this opportunity.

[iceman_1960]

"screen_name_" is trying to shut down all dissent against this war in these Comments sections by posting the following idiotic message over and over again.

"VICTORY IS AMERICAS ONLY CHOICE

THANK YOU GENERAL"

Please hit that "+report abuse" button under his name in his posts, and report this sucker. It only takes a second.

Debate is one thing. Internet vandalism is another. It''''s a felony.

Help shut him down.

[brianbwb-2009]

... BECAUSE NONE OF THEM KNOW WHAT THE FVCK IT IS!
Posted by USAyesterday

Actually they do know what it is, the illegal occupation of a country, and the acceptance of it by a decimated population, the theft of their oil resources, and acceptance of a puppet government. The uneducated cowards even want to turn it into an anti Islamic pogrom, as you can see in many posts here.

Problem is that since the Nuremburg trials established all these definitions as extremely illegal under international law, and also American law, they won''t admit it.

[robertr121]

Definition of a FASCIST, ie: a US Republicon:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
15. Vigorous DENIAL of all of the above!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by ConDumism at 02:15 PM : Sep 14, 2007

You forgot suppressed homosexual tendencies.

[missingamerica]

Yes, I''d back trace screen_name_at and prosecute him for vandalizing CBS.

He''s not free speech; he''s endless repetition until he thinks you believe it.

Just like the POW camps in Korea and Vietnam.