September 25, 2007
by Robert Fantina

Following the dismal reports about progress in Iraq, President Bush has announced troop reductions: by next summer, the number of troops in Iraq will be reduced to the number it was for the first four years of the war. All that is being removed is the 'surge.'

A report from the White House delivered to Congress on Friday, September 14, indicates that the government of Iraq is progressing on half of the eighteen goals established by the U.S. for it. This is an increase of one from the report issued in July.

However, the General Accounting Office (GAO) took a more pessimistic view. Their report shows that only three of eighteen benchmarks have been fully accomplished, with another four partially met.

Public Law 110-28 mandates the GAO to report the status of eighteen benchmarks to Congress. The mandate on the president is far less rigorous; the administration must report on whether or not 'satisfactory progress' is being made toward meeting them. This is child's play for the spin-doctors of the Bush administration; whether or not Congressional Democrats are willing to play along remains to be seen, but there is no reason for any optimism that they will choose to see the wool being pulled over their eyes.

A look at the benchmarks, along with their scores for September 2007 and some pertinent comments by the GAO, is instructive. 

• Forming a constitutional review committee and completing the constitutional review. Status: Not met (the committee has been formed).
• Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification. Status: Not met (laws have been drafted).
• Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of oil revenue. Status: Not met (three out of four components have been drafted, but none are under consideration by parliament).
• Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semiautonomous regions. Status: Partially met (laws have been enacted but not scheduled for implementation until 2009).
• Enacting and implementing legislation to hold provincial elections. Status: Not met (commission law enacted and implemented; supporting laws not enacted)
• Enacting and implementing legislation that addresses amnesty. Status: Not met (no laws drafted).
• Enacting and implementing legislation to disarm militias. Status: Not met (no laws drafted).
• Establishing political, media, economic and services committees in support of the Baghdad security plan. Status: Met (the committees have been formed). 
• Providing three trained, ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations. Status: Partially met (forces have been provided that the GAO reports are of ?some limited effectiveness.')
• Providing Iraqi commanders with authority to pursue all extremists, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, without political intervention.  Status: Not met (political intervention continues).
• Ensuring that the Iraqi security forces are providing evenhanded enforcement of the law. Status: Not met (Iraqi security forces continue to engage in sectarian-based abuses).
• Ensuring that the Baghdad security plan will not result in havens for militias or insurgents. Status: Partially met (militia infiltration continues to provide safe havens).
• Reducing the level of sectarian violence and eliminating militia control of local security. Status: Not met (militias control some local security; unclear whether sectarian violence has decreased).
• Establishing planned joint-security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad. Status: Met (32 of 34 planned stations established).
• Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently. Status: Not met (the number of such units declined since Mr. Bush's 'surge' began).
• Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected: Status: Met (legislators' rights are protected; minority citizen rights are not).
• Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues on reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis: Status: Partially met (funds have been allocated but are unlikely to be spent)
• Ensuring that Iraq's political parties are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi security forces. Status: Not met (unsubstantiated allegations continue to be made).

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The fact that some of these benchmarks are very basic, and have still not been achieved, indicates the challenges the Iraqi people face. Why the United States insists upon forcing itself so painfully into the process is a question that only Mr. Bush (and possibly Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve who recently said "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil") can answer. What is more unfathomable is that as the years drag on and more Iraqi civilians and American soldiers die, Mr. Bush and his gaggle of yes-men cannot see that U.S. involvement is not helping; rather, it only makes the situation worse.

While one can easily see Mr. Bush and his neocon acolytes proclaiming great progress, the facts as presented by the non-partisan General Accounting Office speak louder than they; Mr. Bush's misguided and misdirected plan for Iraq is not working. His doublespeak about reducing forces, merely removing the escalation that characterized his 'new way forward' early in the year, does nothing to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq, although it may mollify Democratic members of Congress who want to appear strong on terror yet fear losing their support among peace-promoting constituents. They will, of course, not succeed in this quixotic endeavor, since their constituents, not blinded by decades of the perquisites so much a part of being a member of Congress, are only interested in right and wrong. Such mundane issues seem to pale for members of Congress against the possible threat of not being reelected.

The world looks in vain, if it has not yet given up altogether, to the Democratic-controlled Congress to look at the GAO report and act accordingly. The Republican minority, still strong enough to prevent veto overrides, continues to parrot Mr.Bush's tired lines about the need for victory (whatever that means) in Iraq.  Yet his words about 'winning' the 'war on terror' ring hollow; Iraq, since the invasion, has become the breeding ground for terrorists that Mr. Bush deceivingly and falsely said it was prior to his immoral, obscene and illegal military misadventure there. Iraq presented no threat to the U.S. then; today, nearly 4,000.American soldiers have been killed, men and women who would today be with their now-grieving families if not for Mr. Bush.

If Mr. Bush sees terrorists as people who kill large numbers of foreign citizens; who destroy homes, places of business and infrastructure, and who generally cause untold fear, than he must number himself within that category. Almost four thousand Americans have died by his hand; nearly 1,000,000 Iraqis. Two million Iraqi citizens have fled the country since his war began, and nearly 1,000,000 more have fled their homes but remained within Iraq. Nearly one-third of that nation's citizens are in dire need of basic services, including water and electricity. All this because of Mr. Bush, with Congress acting as his willing and spineless accomplice.

Mr. Bush says he wants to end terrorism, and appears to believe that by unleashing horrific terrorism on a country already greatly weakened by years of unjust U.N. sanctions he will succeed in doing so. Once again the United States manifests its belief that 'might makes right,' and determines to show that its might is overwhelming and unconquerable.

Yet the people of Iraq have shown an admirable resiliency; they have not given in to the imperial designs of the U.S. president who lusts after their oil and the power and money it can bring. And so their resistance continues, as they show a level of courage in life-and-death situations that members of the U.S. Congress do not come close to achieving in their safe and comfortable offices. The term 'statesman' is one that has not been used to describe an American politician in generations; there seems to be no probability that it will come back into use anytime soon.

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Robert Fantina [send him email] is a long-time activist for peace and social justice. He has worked with the Coalition for Peace Action in New Jersey. Following the 2004 presidential election, he moved to Canada, where he now resides. Robert is the author of Desertion and the American Solder: 1776-2006.