Bush to Declare Progress in Iraq on Some Benchmarks

[cal04]

Source: NYTimes

The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress of the Iraq security plan has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

But it will qualify some verdicts by saying that even when the political performance of the Iraqi government has been unsatisfactory, it is too early to make final judgments, they said.

The administration’s decision to qualify many of the political benchmarks will enable it to present a more optimistic assessment than if it had provided the pass-fail judgment sought by Congress.

The administration officials provided details of the draft report to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity, in part to rebut claims by members of Congress in recent days that almost no progress had been made in Iraq since the security plan began.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/world/middleeast/12surge.html?hp

[steve2470]

1. lies

And they would be mostly lying.

[okoboji]

2. but but but ....

I thought al-Qaida was back to pre 9/11 strength


so am I to be scared about al-Qaida or happy that there is progress?


does anyone know what the hell is going on anymore?

[butch1227]

6. but yeah, but yeah, but yeah....!!!!

I've got sort of an idea, of what's going on....
Bush and Cheney STOLE the election in 2000.
Bush and Cheney SCARED everyone to win the election in 2004.
Bush and Cheney are lying, war-mongering, cowards, who don't give a damn about anyone except themselves....
Bush and Cheney should be impeached for lying us into an unnecessary war, and killing thousands of
Americans, and most likely, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis....
Bush and Cheney said that Osama bin Laden would be captured.... ANOTHER LIE...!!!
Bush and Cheney were in power nearly eight months before "9-11," but tried to blame the Clinton
Administration for it....
Bush and Cheney say that progress is being made in Iraq...
(The ONLY progress in Iraq, is in their feeble minds...)
Bush and Cheney are so concerned about "their legacy...."
Well.... they don't have to worry about their legacy any longer...
Bush and Cheney will be remembered as the MOST CORRUPT, ARROGANT, DISHONEST, STUPID, W-O-R-S-T
Administration EVER...!!!
It would be funny, if it weren't for the fact that so many brave and courageous American have died for their
LIES...!!!!
PITIFUL.............!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Drum]

3. Yes, well, expenditures are up, and definately fatalities as well...

but as a product the War on Terra just isn't performing very well.

Too bad the others guys came out first, saying none of the benchmarks are being met.

[whathappened]

4. from what i'v seen

all that is going on is kicking in doors of peoples homes and ruining there lifes , they the people of iraq are homeless after our great surge

[TankLV]

5. More deaths, more violence, more instability, more fighting, less electricity, less water, less

medical care, more bombings, fewer people, more serious injuries, fewer hospitals, fewer integrated neighborhoods - hell, fewer neighborhhoods...

Yep - those benchmarks are powerful...

[daleo]

7. Has their been progress in the oil stealing benchmark?

That's all the Bush/Cheney regime cares about.

[bluestateguy]

8. I still don't know what a "benchmark" is

Sounds like some word invented at a corporate training retreat.

[Thor_MN]

9. Find Iraq on a map..... Check, sort of, that's Syria, close enough.

Find ass using both hands... Uh, Washington, we have a problem...

[HuffleClaw]

10. "satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks" = FAILURE, a big fat 'F'

only they would try to call that 'progress'

[jefferson_dem]

11. Bush to Declare Progress in Iraq on Some Benchmarks

Source: New York Times

Bush to Declare Progress in Iraq on Some Benchmarks

By DAVID S. CLOUD and JOHN F. BURNS
Published: July 12, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 11 — The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress of the Iraq security plan has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

But it will qualify some verdicts by saying that even when the political performance of the Iraqi government has been unsatisfactory, it is too early to make final judgments, they said.

The administration’s decision to qualify many of the political benchmarks will enable it to present a more optimistic assessment than if it had provided the pass-fail judgment sought by Congress.

The administration officials provided details of the draft report to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity, in part to rebut claims by members of Congress in recent days that almost no progress had been made in Iraq since the security plan began.

The report will land in the middle of a two-week Senate debate that has pitted advocates of an early American troop withdrawal against President Bush, who wants to defer major policy decisions on Iraq until September, when a more comprehensive report is due.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/world/middleeast/12surge.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[IChing]

12. Hic

[neuvocat]

16. Thread over.

You win.

[young_at_heart]

13. I remember seeing MANY clips of Bush using the word "progress"

I think it was on The Daily Show and I lost count of how many times he said we were making progress in Iraq----it was sickening!

[jefferson_dem]

15. The fuckers have been saying the same thing for nearly four years now!

Here's an historical gem from November 2003...

President Bush, Ambassador Bremer Discuss Progress in Iraq
Remarks by the President and Special Envoy to Iraq, Ambassador Bremer, in Photo Opportunity
The Oval Office

9:04 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. I'll share a few words and then answer a couple of questions.

First, Ambassador Bremer and General Abizaid have been briefing the Secretary of Defense and my national security team, General Myers, about the situation in Iraq. We spent time talking about the success of the donors conference, the fact that the world community is coming together to help build a free Iraq, and we want to thank the world for the willingness to step up and to help.

Ambassador Bremer was particularly pleased with not only the fact that governments stood up, but that there was a series of private sector companies willing to help in Iraq, and that's a positive move for the people.

We spent time, obviously, on the security situation. There are terrorists in Iraq who are willing to kill anybody in order to stop our progress. The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react. And our job is to find them and bring them to justice, which is precisely what General Abizaid briefed us on. It is a -- the people have got to understand, the Iraqi people have got to understand that anytime you've got a group of killers willing to kill innocent Iraqis, that their future must not be determined by these kind of killers. That's what they've got to understand. I think they do understand that -- they do. The Ambassador and the General were briefing me on the -- the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice.

This government is determined to hear the call from the Iraqis, and the call is they want a society in which their children can go to school, in which they can get good health care, in which they're able to live a peaceful life. It's in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraq emerge. And we will stay the course in order to achieve this objective.

<SNIP>

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031027-1.html#

Watch the video clip if you want to get really pissed...and if you can stomach it. The infamous Brownie's name makes a cameo...

[Miss Chybil]

14. Surprise, surprise. nt

[Bicoastal]

17. One thing I've been trying to figure out...

Bush and the GOP's decision is, has ALWAYS been--we're making progress in Iraq. Iraq's getting better and better, etc.

Even if they're bogus (and they most likely are) aren't these reports of improvement even MORE of a reason to start taking troops out of there? They could even declare victory, and look good in the process. Well, good-ish.

Why DOES Bush/Cheney co. want to stay so badly? I ask you...

[JDPriestly]

18. Bush is a habitual liary. No one is going to believe anything

he says, no matter what he says.

[tom_paine]

19. The Customary Bushler Strategy: A straight-up, shameless Big Lie.

No, Bush isn't Hitler, but they are men obviously cut from the same cloth.

[LynnTheDem]

20. The deeply stupid 29% will believe bush's lies.

The deeply stupid 29% always believe bush's lies. Even the stupid lies.

Amazing.