The Report

As promised, the interim report on Iraq has been released. As expected, none of the benchmarks have been met. And also as expected, the spin coming from the White House will make you dizzy. This report is just a sneak preview of coming events in September when Petraeus gives his sermon on the mount ....

Even in areas where the White House will refer to positive developments, officials were quick to emphasize that none of the benchmarks have been fully met. But administration officials were in damage control mode and insisted the report will "not conclude, as it has been characterized, that this is a colossal failure," as one tells the NYT. Most of the benchmarks reporting progress were in military areas, while there was little advancement in issues dealing with Iraqi politics. The NYT has the most complete details of what is in the report, and even includes a handy chart. Administration officials who talked to the NYT seemed to view this interim report as a sort of report card for the Iraqi government, and although there is some pointed criticism of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government they didn't want to be too negative in order to give them an incentive "to improve their grades."

That'll do it. Be nice in the report and all those Iraqi politicians will suddenly get around the camp fire for a reprise of kumbaya.

I love that line "the benchmarks reporting progress were in military areas". The political benchmarks are a total failure, and who in their right minds believes the Pentagon's assessment of the military situation? Especially given stories like this (from the same link):

USA Today leads with a previously unreleased Army investigation that says Iraqi police cooperated with the insurgents who carried out the daring January attack in Karbala that killed five U.S. service members. Among its findings, the investigation concluded that Iraqi police disappeared from the scene before the attack, and insurgents had inside information because they knew how the Americans would defend themselves as well as where to find U.S. officers. In case anyone needed it, the report served as a stark reminder of how militants have been able to infiltrate Iraqi security forces.

The reality is that Iraq continues to fail. The Iraqi insurgents have more patients and more time to succeed because they have home field advantage. The U.S., despite the nutbars claims, continues to postpone the inevitable at a very high cost to the U.S.