Bush: Iraq benchmarks report 'cause for optimism'

[weirdtimes_7]

Well here is the story.... Bush reported from the White House and this is what he had to say.....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A report on U.S.-set benchmarks for Iraq shows "satisfactory progress" in eight areas, while highlighting that there's "more work to do" in other areas, President Bush said Thursday.

"Of the 18 benchmarks Congress asked us to measure, we can report that satisfactory progress is being made in eight areas," Bush said during a White House news conference.

Iraqis "have provided the three brigades they promised for operations in and around Baghdad," said the president. However, Iraqis have "not done enough to prepare for local elections or pass a law to share in oil revenues."

Facing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to move toward a pullout of U.S. forces in Iraq, Bush said he will make further decisions after September's report from Gen. David Petreaus, the top American commander in Iraq.

The president touted successes in Iraq's violent Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated region which he said had been "considered lost" and "because of what we call bottom-up reconciliation, Anbar province has changed dramatically."

An anti-al Qaeda element of Sunni tribesmen has emerged, Bush said.

There is progress in Diyala province, where there is a big push against insurgents, the president said. And, he said, "there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where violence is down."

Bush also defined two starkly different sides in the domestic debate over the war.

"Sometimes the debate on Iraq is cast as a debate between keeping troops in Iraq and bringing troops home," Bush said.

"The real debate over Iraq is between those who think the fight is lost -- or not worth the cost -- and those who believe the fight can be won and as difficult as the fight is, the cost of defeat would be far higher."

"Those of us who believe the battle in Iraq can and must be won see the satisfactory performance on several of the security benchmarks as a cause for optimism," Bush told reporters. "Our strategy is built on the premise that progress in security will pave the way for political progress, so it's not surprising that political progress is lagging behind the security gains we're seeing."

The evaluation says the Iraqis have made satisfactory military progress by setting up joint U.S.-Iraqi security stations in Baghdad neighborhoods, but have failed to adequately increase the number of Iraqi security units capable of operating independently.

On the political side, the establishment of a Constitutional Review Committee and completion of that review was rated satisfactory. But the report also says levels of violence last year undermined efforts toward political reconciliation as the nation struggles with a culturally fractured, fledgling government.

The benchmarks are meant to help the United States determine its political, economic, and military war strategy in coming months after a U.S. troop increase that began in February.

War critic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a Democrat who recently returned from Iraq, said the report seems to correspond with his observations during his trip. Although "the Iraqi army has made some progress, the Iraqi police are still really confused, disorganized and riddled with sectarian infiltration," Reed told CNN's "American Morning" Thursday. "And then the government itself, in terms of delivering services to the people, seems to be quite dysfunctional."

Reed, who's co-sponsoring legislation aimed at the pullout of U.S. combat troops by this April, said the United States should change its strategy in Iraq to "focus on much more limited missions, counterterrorism, training the Iraqi forces and protecting our forces."

The White House has made it clear that the report will not trigger any major change in its Iraq war strategy. But two senior Republican senators, John Warner of Virginia and Richard Lugar of Indiana, are expected to introduce a plan refocusing the U.S. mission in Iraq toward counterterrorism and training Iraqi forces. Both men have been breaking from Bush's current war strategy, while remaining opposed to specific deadlines for troop withdrawal.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents to a June CNN/Research Corporation poll said they oppose the Iraq war and 66 percent disapproved of the way Bush has handled his job.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/12/us.iraq/index.html

So what do ya'll think???

military_stang

[MiniSimp]

Bacon.

[red]

i think that if we're going to have soldiers over there they should be allowed to do there job. you CAN'T fight a politically correct war, its an oxymoron. let the generals do there job and we would have already been out of there. with how the war is being run, the soldiers should not be there. if the war was being run like how it was when it started then yes, currently no way.

[abnormaltoy]

i think that if we're going to have soldiers over there they should be allowed to do there job. you CAN'T fight a politically correct war, its an oxymoron. let the generals do there job and we would have already been out of there. with how the war is being run, the soldiers should not be there. if the war was being run like how it was when it started then yes, currently no way.

The ONLY thing(s) that will turn this into a "Vietnam" are the Democrats in congress and the media. Harry Reid may have lost the war...but we (editorial we) haven't. If the Democrats are so freaking sure about their position, cut off the money and force us to lose. If they don't have the courage of their convictions they should shut the (your expletive here) up. If they have differences with the policy they should keep them in chambers and not sleeper themselves in the media every night. WE WON THE FREAKING WAR...Saddam is dead. The only thing that is of concern is rebuilding Iraq. With the media constantly harping on the negative, what choice does the American public have BUT to think we've lost. I've had relatives over there and still have friends and relatives in intel, they paint a completely different picture than what is being portrayed here. I believe President Bush should tell Congress to lead, follow or get out of the way. I often wonder how different things might have been if Flight 93 made it to the Capitol building...I bet the candy asses would be singing a different tune.

[brainlessfool]

be our friend on get nuked. (my campine platform)

[NT-OUTBACK]

Let's not forget Bush and his "party" had over three years to yield results before the democrats took control of the house this year. IMO trying to "rebuild" Iraq is akin to polishing a turd, in the end after we have packed up and gone, civil war will breakout anyways. It's not going to matter if that is today or five years from now. IN the end we are really screwing ourselves, as other potential enemies rise up such as Iran and China.

[kneedownnate]

I agree that no matter how good it looks whenever we leave it'll all go to hell shortly thereafter.  I feel we have no business being there anymore but realize there's no easy way out.  It's killing us that the area is so vast and there's a seemingly endless supply of them willing to die.

Give over rights to Ross Perot, make the war run like a business and it'll be over soon...