Goalpost Shifting Time

From this mornings LA Times:

WASHINGTON — U.S. military leaders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that most of the broad political goals President Bush laid out early this year in his announcement of a troop buildup will not be met this summer and are seeking ways to redefine success.

In September, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, is scheduled to present Congress with an assessment of progress in Iraq. Military officers in Baghdad and outside advisors working with Petraeus doubt that the three major goals set by U.S. officials for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki will be achieved by then.

...

With overhauls by the central government stalled and with security in Baghdad still a distant goal, Petraeus' advisors hope to focus on smaller achievements that they see as signs of progress, including local deals among Iraq's rival factions to establish areas of peace in some provincial cities.

...

Military officers said they understood that any report that key goals had not been met would add to congressional Democrats' skepticism. But some counterinsurgency advisors to Petraeus have said it was never realistic to expect that Iraqis would reach agreement on some of their most divisive issues after just a few months of the American troop buildup.

Never realistic? No shit sherlock. Look for the focus to shift to "local" successes as opposed to reductions in deaths or any sort of real changes.

The military has been sending out these types of signals for some time now. The Pentagon is clearly trying to change the conventional wisdom of focusing on improvement by September. They're on the ground, they know it's not achieveable. The military types are never going to come forward and say, "fogettaboutit, this thing is a loser". Like good soldiers, they'll say it's doable and continue to forge new and improved plan to "win".

As long as policymakers and decisionmakers want to be in Iraq, the military will find justification to be there.

The ball continues to be in the Republicans in Congress's court.

Republican watch continues.

Meanwhile ten soldiers were killed yesterday.

Update: And eight today ..... so far ten so far.