Little Progress Seen on Iraq Goals

[uscitizen]

Little Progress Seen on Iraq Goals


Aug 29, 9:15 PM (ET)

By MATTHEW LEE and ROBERT BURNS


WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional auditors have determined that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy, The Associated Press has learned.

The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq are unfulfilled ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline for Bush to give a detailed accounting of the situation eight months after he announced the policy, according to three officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public, also said the administration is preparing a case to play down its findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, "all or nothing" standards when compiling the document.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070830/D8RB1LDG0.html

 

[Crashk]

From the same article...

"The GAO report comes at a pivotal time in the Iraq debate. So far, Republicans have mostly stood by Bush on the war and staved off Democratic demands for troop withdrawals. But in exchange for their support, many GOP members said they wanted to see substantial progress by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by September or else they would call for a new strategy, including possibly a troop withdrawal.
The GAO, the congressional watchdog, is expected to find that the Iraqis have met only modest security goals for Baghdad and none of the major political aims such as passage of an oil law.
The White House declined to comment on the specific findings of the GAO report, which one official said would put the Iraqi government's success rate at about 20 percent..."

when they give Bush's oil buddies the rights to oil profits the war will be over in Iraq. The Iraqi's seem to be dragging their feet on this issue, hmmmm I wonder why?

 

[uscitizen]

From the same article...

"The GAO report comes at a pivotal time in the Iraq debate. So far, Republicans have mostly stood by Bush on the war and staved off Democratic demands for troop withdrawals. But in exchange for their support, many GOP members said they wanted to see substantial progress by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by September or else they would call for a new strategy, including possibly a troop withdrawal.
The GAO, the congressional watchdog, is expected to find that the Iraqis have met only modest security goals for Baghdad and none of the major political aims such as passage of an oil law.
The White House declined to comment on the specific findings of the GAO report, which one official said would put the Iraqi government's success rate at about 20 percent..."

when they give Bush's oil buddies the rights to oil profits the war will be over in Iraq. The Iraqi's seem to be dragging their feet on this issue, hmmmm I wonder why?

Naah we will have to leave a presence to watch over those oll contracts.
You know how those arabic types are.....

 

[Bonestorm]

My personal favorites from the Washington Post:

While it makes no policy recommendations, the draft suggests that future administration assessments "would be more useful" if they backed up their judgments with more details and "provided data on broader measures of violence from all relevant U.S. agencies."

Essentially the GAO is saying that the Bush Administration is completely full of it, are clearly cooking the books and refusing to show their work.

And then there's this gem:

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version -- as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

Basically, the draft was provided because once it went through the vetting process the GAO knew that its real conclusion would be watered down by the folks at the Pentagon. That tells you all you really need to know.

 

[uscitizen]

I think we know which version Fox will be talking about.