President George W. Bush has insisted America can still win the war in Iraq, despite a bleak picture of progress in the war-wracked nation painted by a White House report.
As Bush tried to quell a Republican revolt and thwart rising Democratic demands to bring troops home, he argued there were still grounds for optimism, especially in the area of security.
‘I believe we can succeed in Iraq, and I know we must,’ Bush said at a press conference, ruling out any troop withdrawals based on souring public opinion on the war.
He said a pull-back before commanders recommended it was safe would be ‘dangerous’ for the Middle East and mean handing over Iraq to Al-Qaeda.
Yep. Stay the course.
The report found the Baghdad government had made satisfactory progress towards only eight of 18 benchmarks on political, security and military goals, set by the US Congress. Progress has been ’satisfactory’ on another eight benchmarks with uncertain results on two more.
The assessment revealed that efforts by Iraq to get its armed forces operating independently of US units — a key goal of the administration’s hopes to eventually cut US troop numbers, had made ‘unsatisfactory progress.’
Stay the course.
It found the Baghdad government has made ‘unsatisfactory’ progress on legislation explicitly endorsed by Washington as central to efforts to quiet sectarian violence.
There was more optimism on the situation in some regions, like Anbar province, where it echoed recent US statements that local tribal leaders had turned sharply against members of Al-Qaeda.
A senior US official, on condition of anonymity styled the interim report as merely a snapshot of the early stages of the operation announced in January.
‘The report came out as you would expect an interim report to come out, with security indicators leading and political lagging behind,’ the official said.
Security and political lagging behind what?
Seriously… This is why we need to think our Iraq strategy. Quickly. Setting up a self-defending government is the priority, not the after effect. If we can’t get that going and if the Iraqis are still there not trying to take the reigns of their own country, why the hell are we still there expecting it to happen?
Oh right.
Stay the course.
Which we were never actually about, according to the President.
