Iraq Fails to Meet Benchmarks

The Bush White House released a report this morning claiming that there is “satisfactory” progress on eight of 18 benchmarks laid out by Congress. But it did not identify a single one of these security, economic, or political benchmarks as having been completed by the Iraqi government.

The report has become something of a political football in Washington, where a growing number of Republican senators are turning against the Bush’s controversial “surge” plan. Originally conceived as a midterm assessment on the new strategy’s progress, this morning’s report will loom as a significant factor in the intensifying debate on Capitol Hill.

That debate will be an uncomfortable one for the Bush White House. Indeed, many of the claims of progress ring rather hollow. On the first benchmark, for instance, the report claims that the Iraqi government “has made ‘satisfactory’ progress on forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.” This is considered a key step to bring alienated Sunnis back into the political process.

But while a review committee has been created, little progress has been made on resolving the bulk of the thorny issues that remain outstanding. Even if the committee completes its work, the changes would have to pass through a legislature suffering from division, paralysis, and boycotts, as well as a popular referendum.

In another area of “satisfactory” progress, the Iraqi government is praised for its work on allocating the federal budget to various ministries and provinces. But at the same time, the White House admits that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has managed to spend very little of its windfall oil profits and that only 22 percent of its capital budget was spent in 2006.

Still, Bush made a public plea for Americans to continue to support the U.S. presence in Iraq.

“America is not going to back down,” he said. “I believe we can succeed and I believe we are making the security progress that make the political track succeed.”

U.S. News  assessed Iraq’s progress last month.

--Kevin Whitelaw