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TechnoratiIn his speech last night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words.
For instance, Bush asserted that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done," such as "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions."
Yet his statement ignored the fact that U.S. officials have been frustrated that none of those actions have been enshrined into law -- and that reports from Baghdad this week indicated that a potential deal on sharing oil revenue is collapsing.
In a radio address to the nation less than a month ago, the president himself complained that the Iraqi government was failing to address these issues. "Unfortunately, political progress at the national level has not matched the pace of progress at the local level," Bush said on Aug. 18. "The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues."
Bush also asserted that Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, was once an al-Qaeda stronghold but that "today, Baqubah is cleared." But in a meeting with reporters on Aug. 27, the head of the State Department team in Diyala said the security situation was not stable, hampering access to food and energy, though he acknowledged that commerce was returning to Baqubah.
"Everything is based around security; if we have security, then we can bring in agencies like USAID," John Melvin Jones said, referring to the U.S. Agency for International Development. "It's going to take a while before the security situation gets stable enough so that you can have a lot of these other agencies involved."
Bush also thanked "the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq." But the State Department's most recent weekly report on Iraq said there are 25 countries supplying 11,685 troops -- about 7 percent of the size of the U.S. forces.
At one point, the president cited a recent report by a commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones, saying that "the Iraqi army is becoming more capable, although there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police."
But the report said Iraq's army will be unable to take over internal security from U.S. forces in the next 12 to 18 months and "cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven." It also described the 25,000-member national police force as riddled with sectarianism and corruption, and it recommended that it be disbanded.
The commission also recommended that U.S. troops in Iraq be "retasked" in early 2008 to protect critical infrastructure and guard against border threats from Iran and Syria, while gradually turning responsibility for security over to Iraqi forces despite their deficiencies -- advice the president did not follow in last night's speech.
The president also painted a relatively favorable picture of Baghdad, saying that a year ago much of it "was under siege" but that today "ordinary life is beginning to return." He did not mention that much of the once-heterogeneous city has been divided into Shiite and Sunni enclaves.
The president also said that groups of "Iranian-backed militants" are "being broken up, and many of their leaders are being captured or killed." In congressional testimony this week, Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker emphasized that Iran poses a looming menace in Iraq.
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
10 Comments so far
Show AllWhen asked why the surge would work this time, when it has not worked in the past, Bush said because he had Malaki's assurances. Those so called assurances from Malaki are worth as much as any of the assurances from Bush...that is, not worth a darn.
WIN? The Great Game isn't about winning.
From the days of the Roman Empire there has been a political awareness that running or owning a country was more expensive than instilling social chaos, then bribing local war lords with arms in exchange for the resources you need. Because they are foreign supported, they will be unpopular and dependent on the empire's arms and support to stay in power. Look as Israel under the Romans. Herod was a flunky.
We don't want peace or victory... we need a nation too weak to say "No" and make it stick.
The end game is to "manage" mid-east oil so we get a 1 or 2 percent cost of manufacturing advantage over the other nations of the world until the oil dries up.
It amazes me this ancient and well understood game is NEVER explained in the press. Nothing about this is a mystery. The real problem is in Public Relations here in the USA where a nasty affair means losing elections and the ability to wax rich from the gifts and deals the people in power can deal.
Remember, refusing to let any other nation control middle east oil is the Carter Doctrine!
Not only has the illegal occupation of Iraq failed, but also the DOD and DHS just failed their audits. The accounting was so bad that the audits could not even be completed! Here is an idea: ABOLISH THE DOD AND DHS, and legally hold these crooks accountable!
Liar. Disgusting b**t*rd. I can not bear to see his face or hear his voice. I only wish he'd contract a debilitating, chronic, and fatal illness and I wish Cheney's heart would fail (does he have a heart?). Sorry. Nothing productive to say. It's all been said. So anyone listening to W's crap, much less buying it is wasting their time. And wasting oxygen.
The cheerleader-in-chief is leading us to sudden death, over time.
Rah! Rah!
This mutt hasn't got a clue. He's muttering the party-line fed to him by his inept speechwriters. The truth is that the oil companies haven't got what they want yet.
It would seem that this group of psychotic monkeys are not capable of saying these words to the Iraqi Government(whatever that is): " We'd like to buy some of your oil at a fair price."
This is definitely now the WORST Foreign Policy disaster in American History....
Bu$hCo's legacy, [alternatively an excoriated legacy of casuistry] will be a CHARNEL house in ME and a 'CONSUETUDE FRAUDE' left in the American Kleptocracy and Multi-Generational Public Debt of unimaginably massive proportions....Addison Wiggins last estimate $74 Trillion Dollars!
Whats truly horrifying in this, is after waiting for General BetrayUs's Fealty Report, we get more specious legerdemain...
and absolutely no actionable contrition from any of the participants.....
Put simply, if they were being truthful they would follow Dennis Kucinich's balanced reasoning and withdraw the Troops NOW....
SEND THE BUSH TWINS!!!!- see how committed he is then... although he should be committed now!
what in the world is commondreams thinking? 'The President Asserted Progress...' 'President'??!! the creature's a common thief.
This man and his circle of buddies have no credibility, no honor, no heart for people, life or democracy. They speak no truth -- only the lies that further their self-serving aims and results. They have the iron fist of military might whose steel is ultimately destined to melt and sink of its own weight like lead in mud. History is repeating itself before our very eyes. I hope that with their upcoming melt-down, they don't lash out at the world and also seek to melt it to its core. Our work is to look through them -- and see how we can re-build oursevles and our world well beyond them. Anything else is simply turning our back on the lives we are given.