[Successes are in green. Overall only three of the eighteen bench marks were achieved.] IRAQ BENCHMARKS (i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review. GAO conclusion: Committee formed but contentious issues unresolved. No referendum scheduled. (ii) Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Ba'athification reform. GAO conclusion: Under parliamentary review. (iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources to the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shi'a Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner. GAO conclusion: Three of the four components drafted; none being considered by parliament. (iv) Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semi-autonomous regions. GAO conclusion: Law enacted; implementation scheduled for 2008. (v) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections. GAO conclusion: Commission law enacted; supporting laws not enacted. (vi) Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty. GAO conclusion: No law drafted. (vii) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that such security forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the constitution of Iraq. GAO conclusion: No law drafted. (viii) Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad Security Plan. GAO conclusion: Committees established. (ix) Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations. GAO conclusion: Forces provided; some of limited effectiveness. (x) Providing Iraqi commanders with all authorities to execute this plan and to make tactical and operational decisions in consultation with U.S. Commanders without political intervention to include the authority to pursue all extremists including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. GAO conclusion: Some operational decisions based on sectarian interests. (xi) Ensuring that Iraqi Security Forces are providing even-handed enforcement of the law. GAO conclusion: Iraqi security forces engaged in sectarian abuses. (xii) Ensuring that, as Prime Minister Maliki was quoted by President Bush as saying, “the Baghdad Security Plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation.†GAO conclusion: Militia infiltration of security force enables some havens. (xiii) Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security. GAO conclusion: Militias control local security; unclear whether sectarian violence has decreased. (xiv) Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad. GAO conclusion: Thirty-two of thirty-four stations established. (xv) Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently. GAO conclusion: Number of independent units declined from 10 in March 2007 to 6 in July 2007. (xvi) Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected. GAO conclusion: Legislature's rights protected; citizens' rights remain unprotected. (xvii) Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis. GAO conclusion: Fully allocated but unlikely to be fully spent. (xviii) Ensuring that Iraq's political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the ISF. GAO conclusion: Unsubstantiated accusations continue to be made. The GAO report: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071195.pdf The Jones Report: http://www.c-span.org/pdf/jonesreport090607.pdf
Yeah sure, fuck the GAO report and fuck Petraeus but why, and what other alternatives do you have? These are the realities of the situations, what are some of the solutions we could use to help a broken country? Iraq isn't just going to go away no matter how unpopular the war becomes or how deeply its architects are reviled. Comments? Solutions?
