Lawmakers Blast Pentagon Over Iraq Report

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Congessional critics of Bush administration Iraq policy lashed out at the Pentagon Thursday for keeping classified parts of a report that gave a detailed assessment of the readiness of Iraqi fighting forces.

Sen. Carl Levin, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he fears "the American people are going to be left out" of discussions about when the United States can bring troops home and turn the wartorn country over to Iraqi security forces.

Levin's broadside came in the wake of a newly disclosed memo in which the vice chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace wrote that about half of Iraq's new police battalions are still being established and cannot conduct operations. His assessment came in a seven-page declassified response to a question that Levin raised at a June 29 hearing.
.....
Joining Levin, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calfornia said Thursday that if Rumsfeld submits merely "a progress report on the war without standards, goals and timetables specified" he will not have satisfied the intent of Congress.

"A meaningful strategy for success must include benchmarks by which the American people can better ask how the war in Iraq is going and when our troops can come home," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072100160.html

[soup]

1. Thank you, Rose Siding.

Is this THE Department of Defense Report due July 11th?

Prior threads questioning the DOD report:

Rumsfeld has until July 11 to produce Iraq benchmarks
posted by norml:

>>President Bush is facing a legal deadline to deliver what he has been most resistant to providing: a set of specific benchmarks for measuring progress toward military and political stability in Iraq.

Under a little-noticed provision of the defense spending bill passed by Congress in May, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld has until July 11 to send Capitol Hill a "comprehensive set of performance indicators and measures of stability and security" two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein.<<
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x137744

--

Under the Radar Friday July 15, 2005

>>The information required is specific and detailed. It includes measures of the security environment, including the number of engagements per day, the count of trained Iraqi forces and more. It orders up indicators of economic activity. It directs Rumsfeld to provide -- either in public or in classified annexes -- an estimate of U.S. military forces needed in Iraq through the end of calendar 2006 and the criteria the administration will use to determine when it is safe to begin withdrawing forces.<<
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4110822

--

Ah, never mind, answered my own question.

--

From the article in your original post:

>>On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters that a full report was to be provided to Congress by Thursday or Friday and he said that it would not include an estimate of how many U.S. troops are likely to be required in Iraq next year, even though Congress is pressing for that estimate.<<

--

I know there's a lot of stuff going on right now, but would sure like to see this get more attention.

Need to tell our congress critters to demand the DOD supply the report as mandated.

[Trillo]

2. "congress critters"

"Need to tell our congress critters to demand the DOD supply the report as mandated.

I agree. Its quite curious that any of that report would be censored. Responsibility for paying the bills lands squarely in Congress's lap. To deny requested information to the "bill payer" is the same as saying "pay" but do not "question".

Seems kinda like a strong-arm tactic similar to extortion.

I wonder what Senators and Representatives truly feel and think about this.

[WhiteTara]

9. I wondered how they were going to slime out

of the report when it was late. Now we know. Lie and obfuscate. :grr:

[maddezmom]

3. kick and recommended

:hi:

[bribri16]

4. STILL LYING!! That's all that needs to be said. n/t

[Ezlivin]

5. So all children must be assessed and evaluated, but our military doesn't?

It would fantastic if we could just burn/tattoo into the foreheads of each of these criminals the word "ACCOUNTABILITY".

[understandinglife]

6. The Bush administration has been violating the relevant law since July 11,

... 2005.

Link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4082365

WATCH IT; SPREAD IT http://www.bushflash.com/right.html

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[soup]

7. Sorry I somehow missed your thread last week, understandinglife.

So, it wasn't as completely 'Under the Radar' as I posted on Friday. I would have mentioned it upthread if I had seen it.

Should have known that someone here would have been on it. Thank you. and thank you for this:

"This is not a joke.

It is a violation of law.

It is violation of law that involves the well-being of each and every member of our Armed Forces.

To violate this law is to compromise them and our National Security."


Support our troops. 3 words, yellow stickers everywhere. Here's a chance to actually walk the walk. Demand accountability.

[understandinglife]

8. Just wanted everyone to have the content and the comments. It is such ..

... an important issue and I was delighted to see this new thread.

Thank you!


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[ECH1969]

10. US pats itself on back over Iraq

The Pentagon has told US Congress that progress toward establishing democracy in Iraq is on track despite a deadly insurgency, but it offered no estimate of when US troops would start withdrawing.

In its most comprehensive public assessment yet of conditions in Iraq, the military released a 23-page report that described progress and problems on the political, economic and security fronts.

Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, director of strategic plans for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that specific measuring tools are useful in gauging the combat capabilities of Iraqi forces. But he said decisions about when Iraqis can take over for US troops will be based in part of the judgment of US commanders.

Pentagon officials said later that only three of the approximately 100 Iraqi army battalions are taking on the insurgents by themselves. About one-third is fully capable of operating against the insurgency, but only with U.S. support. The rest are partially capable of operating with American support, the officials said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/US-pats-itself-on-back-over-Iraq/2005/07/22/1121539126860.html?oneclick=true

[pfitz59]

11. Yeah,and returning soldiers are happy clams!

Per another DOD report! These folks are NUTS!

[meganmonkey]

12. Why isn't the whole world patting our back?

Gee, I wonder.

[Deja Q]

13. They cannot leave. To do so would allow the Iraqis to destroy the wells.

Oil wells. Black gold. Baghdad tea.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. This has to be the biggest pile of shit heaped on the public

since powell gave that speech at the UN.

[Maeve]

15. "On track" but what is the timetable?

And where are the tracks leading? :shrug:

Enquiring minds and all that jazz...

[bvar22]

16. My thoughts exactly!!!

This report is self-contradictory.
How can you be on track when you don't know where you are going or when you will get there?

Which "TRACK" are they using....certainly NOT the "Track" they said we would be on when they were cheerleading for the invasion! That track was only a couple of months long, and the Iraqi Oil was going to pay for the rebuilding.


If bushco* was a contractor building a house for me, they would have been sooooo FIRED soooo long ago.

[Tippy]

17. Earlier this evening I was talking

with a friend of my son's who's brother was just home on leave from Iraq...The young man had this to say..."we can't tell who are the bad guys and who are the good guys"...sounds like the U.S. is patting it's self on the back a bit prematurely to say the least...

[papau]

18. Pentagon: Iraq Progress 'On Track' (3 of 100 battalions can fight w/o US

help - 3% of 77,300, and half of the 94,000 police and paramilitary can fight without US Help).

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-report22jul22,0,5232910.story?track=tottext

Pentagon: Iraq Progress 'On Track'
By Paul Richter
Times Staff Writer

July 22, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Thursday sent Congress a formal assessment of the war in Iraq that describes the insurgency as "capable, adaptable and intent," but does not disclose details on the readiness of Iraqi security forces.

The report, the first of a series required by law at 90-day intervals, provides a generally upbeat view of progress in Iraq, contending that postwar recovery efforts have the support of a majority of Iraqis and the international community.

"This process is on track," says the 23-page report, which was delivered more than a week behind schedule.

The Pentagon refused to describe the readiness of the 171,300 Iraqi troops and police to operate on their own, saying that to do so would provide insurgents valuable intelligence.<snip>

[ck4829]

19. 3 out of 107

Attributed from the Daily Show.

[papau]

21. The Daily Show is our only unbiased US News show! :-(

:-(

[rodeodance]

20. oh good grief. --real progress for sure!!

[leftchick]

22. aka...

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel"

:eyes:

[wli]

23. oh yeah, I'm "impressed"

What a crock. Time to pull out of Iraq.

[soup]

24. Is there a site where we can read the 'full' 23 page report?

23 pages. I can only laugh, because if I scream, it'll never stop.

[leftchick]

25. try this...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_pentagon_report_19;_


From the yahoo story...

On the Net:

Iraq report: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2005/d20050721secstab.pdf

[soup]

26. Thank you, leftchick.

Apologies for not doing my own homework.

[MichiganVote]

27. Oh wow, I can hardly contain my joy. Way to go republicans!

At this rate, $300 billion and over 1700 American lives for 3 battalions, we really will want a rapture since that's about all we'll have left.

[ticapnews]

28. 2300 soldiers and 47000 police officers...

Roughly 50,000 total.

At a cost of $300 billion.

Doing some quick math...

Does the average Iraqi cop look something like this?



http://www.bahia.hu:2000/cuccok/dinamikus/general/Six_Million_Dollar_Man.jpg