A bleak portrait of the political and security situation in Iraq released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office sparked sharp protests from the top U.S. military command in Baghdad, whose officials described it as flawed and "factually incorrect."
The controversy followed last-minute changes made in the final draft of the report after the Defense Department maintained that its conclusions were too harsh and insisted that some of the information it contained — such as the extent of a fall in the number of Iraqi army units capable of operating without U.S. assistance — should not appear in the final, unclassified version.
The GAO rejected several changes proposed by the Pentagon and concluded that Iraq had failed to meet all but two of nine security goals Congress had set as part of a list of 18 benchmarks of progress. But grades for two of the seven unmet security benchmarks — the elimination of havens for militia forces and the deployment of three Iraqi army brigades to assist the U.S. security plan in Baghdad — were recast to reflect partial progress. Two other benchmarks, one political and one economic, were also described as "partially met."
Places everyone! Here in our theater of the absurd, your mind can be free of the constraints of fact and time and place. Let your imagination soar above the hum-drum limitations of your everyday world, as you step into our dark theater filled with bright lights and fantasy. Come to the Cabaret! On our front stage tonight, we begin with a scene of the Very Important Generals meeting with the King and his Very Important Court arguing that their Very Important Far-Off War is going splendidly. While the ministers carry on, we have, on our second stage, a scene from the Very Important Far-Off War. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t sit too close! We’ve got some really great fireworks [but we’re never sure when they’ll go off!]…
President Bush’s senior advisers on Iraq have recommended he stand by his current war strategy, and he is unlikely to order more than a symbolic cut in troops before the end of the year, administration officials told The Associated Press Tuesday.
The recommendations from the military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker come despite independent government findings Tuesday that Baghdad has not met most of the political, military and economic markers set by Congress.
Bush appears set on maintaining the central elements of the policy he announced in January, one senior administration official said after discussions with participants in Bush’s briefings during his surprise visit to an air base in Iraq on Monday.
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