Unnamed Sources Say GAO to Give Negative Report on Iraqi Benchmarks
Unnamed sources have told the AP the GAO will give a mostly negative report about the progress made by the Iraqi government in the benchmarks set by Washington in January.
WASHINGTON — Congressional auditors have determined that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush’s Iraq war strategy, The Associated Press has learned.
The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure progress in the rush into Iraq of increased numbers of U.S. troops are unfulfilled ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline for Bush to give a detailed accounting of the situation eight months after he announced the policy, according to three officials familiar with the matter.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report is not yet public, also said the administration is preparing a case to downplay its findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, “all or nothing” standards when compiling the document.
The GAO is to give a classified briefing about its findings to lawmakers on Thursday. It is not yet clear when its unclassified report will be released, but it is due Sept. 1 amid a series of assessments called for in January legislation that authorized Bush’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Iraq. The Americans already have more than 160,000 in-country.
I guess it all depends on how one measures progress. How much legislation the people wanted when we elected our Congress has been passed since January?
We’re heading into September and no sign of an official budget has been seen as ready by our Congress.
What major accomplishments have our experienced Congress members made since January? Can you name them? Some would say the minimum wage increase but that was tacked onto a war funding bill and not done as a standalone.
The pork has been sliced pretty well for all those folks back home though. Served with gravy and all the other trimmings.
So far what I’ve seen from our Congress are members standing on steps or in offices or hallways to proclaim there’s a new sheriff in town or a new investigation being launched or they have a mandate to do certain things such as stop the war, and that’s all they’ve done.
If we compare the two maybe Iraq’s government comes out ahead or at least is equal to the dismal job our Congress has done.
Written by ~J~
Sue Says:
August 30th, 2007 at 12:52 pmVisit Sue
I think I’ll wait for the report by General Petraeus thank you.
~J~ Says:
August 30th, 2007 at 1:22 pmVisit ~J~
And the one from Ambassador Crocker to get the political feel of what’s going on. Maybe they should ask some of the embedded milbloggers to come in and testify as to what’s really going on too.
Sue Says:
August 30th, 2007 at 1:51 pmVisit Sue
Would I just love to see Michael Yon or Michael Totten face down some of the members of Congress. Great idea J.