The White House report to U.S. lawmakers on progress in Iraq showed meager gains on benchmarks that Congress established for the Iraqi government.
President Bush's report, which was released Friday, grades Iraq as showing satisfactory progress on nine of the 18 benchmarks set for the Iraqi government.
The report said Iraqi leaders have shown unsatisfactory progress on seven benchmarks, including four "with progress on some aspects while not on others."
Two benchmarks "are not rated because the necessary preconditions are not yet present," the report said.
That's where you'll see the real push in Iraq over the coming months. Diplomatic and political pushes will dominate the headlines for the foreseeable future as the security situation becomes better and better.
Watch for a push against al-Maliki and the Iraqi parliament to get laws passed, Iraqi security forces on their feet quicker, and Iranian influence to diminish.
Of course, according to the article: "Democrats vowed to fight for a change of course in Iraq."
The problem is that Democrats idea of "change" is get the hell out as quickly as possible and damn the consequences of said action. That's not "change", that's leaving people to the wolves.
I watched the President's speech and while there were things I disagreed with him on (such as leaving troops in Iraq for significant periods of time), he is right on many levels. The recent assassination of an Anbar leader shows that Al-Qaeda wants to come back and wreak havoc onto the populace. If our guys aren't there to protect them until they are enough on their own feet, Al-Qaeda could easily slaughter them all and the blood of innocent civilians will be on Democratic hands.
Of course they won't see it that way. They'll see it as "we got out because we lost" and other defeatist attitudes like that. Our men and women on the ground see it, President Bush sees it, hell even regional leaders see it, so why can't Democrats see it? Because they love nothing more than an American defeat.
Travis
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