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Have you noticed how liberals keep demanding benchmarks, deadlines, timetables, and expiration dates for programs that actually work, but they exempt themselves and their own liberal programs from such scrutiny? Successful programs and policies come to an end; those that are a waste of time and money just keep going and going, with bigger Congressional appropriations every year. Liberals are demanding a date certain for American armed forces to pull out of Iraq. I guess they must assume that a war can be fought on a timetable. Funny how no one is calling for a pullout from Germany or Japan,...

WASHINGTON - Baghdad has not met 11 of its 18 political and security goals, according to a new independent report on Iraq that challenges President Bush's assessment on the war, The Associated Press has learned. The study, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, was slightly more upbeat than initially planned. After receiving substantial pushback from the White House, the GAO determined that four benchmarks — instead of two — had been partially met. But GAO stuck with its original contention that only three goals out of the 18 had been achieved. The goals met include establishing joint security stations in...

WASHINGTON — Congressional auditors have determined that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy, The Associated Press has learned. The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure progress in the rush into Iraq of increased numbers of U.S. troops are unfulfilled ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline for Bush to give a detailed accounting of the situation eight months after he announced the policy, according to three officials familiar with the...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced on Sunday they had reached consensus on some key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.The agreement by the five leaders was one of the most significant political developments in Iraq for months and was quickly welcomed by the United States, which hopes such moves will ease sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.But skeptics will be watching for action amid growing frustration in Washington over the political paralysis that has gripped the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore congratulated Iraq's...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2007 – The commander of coalition forces in Iraq said he won’t “pull any punches” in the Iraqi benchmark report due to Congress by Sept. 15. The report will reflect both tactical progress being made in Iraq and areas that still need work, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said yesterday on Fox News Radio’s “Alan Colmes Show.” “I have vowed that I will provide a forthright and comprehensive assessment,” he said during an interview from Baghdad. President Bush has said he’ll rely heavily on the report by Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to...

BAGHDAD -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave "any time they want," though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training. The embattled prime minister sought to show confidence at a time when congressional pressure is growing for a withdrawal and the Bush administration reported little progress had been made on the most vital of a series of political benchmarks it wants al-Maliki to carry out. Al-Maliki said difficulty in enacting the measures was "natural" given Iraq's turmoil. But one of...

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2007 – President Bush today assured U.S troops in Iraq they have his “unwavering support” and that he wants them to return home as soon as conditions there allow it. “As president, my most solemn responsibility is to keep the American people safe,” Bush said at the White House. “So on my orders, good men and women are now fighting the terrorists on the front lines in Iraq.” Speaking to reporters about the newly released Initial Benchmark Assessment Report, Bush said he’s given the troops in Iraq clear objectives. “And as they risk their lives to...

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2007 – Iraqis are showing good progress toward meeting eight of 18 benchmarks set by Congress and mixed progress toward two other benchmarks, President Bush said today as he summarized findings of a new White House report. The Initial Benchmark Assessment Report, released today, offers a preliminary review of security, political and economic progress in Iraq. Congress set a July 15 deadline for the report as part of the emergency war-spending supplemental measure. The final report is due in September. Bush said the September report is expected to be far more telling because it will reflect...

WASHINGTON — A U.S. official said Thursday the Iraq government has been given a satisfactory rating on eight of 18 political and security benchmarks measured in an interim White House report to Congress, a mixed rating on two and an unsatisfactory rating on eight benchmarksofficials emphasize this is an interim report to measure progress in Iraq, and they continue to place emphasis on a report due in September, which will include comments and recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, head of Multinational Forces in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. President Bush is expected to make comments after the...

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq, is a 36-year career diplomat who has served under seven administrations in Iran, Syria, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Pakistan. He's no partisan gunslinger. So it's worth listening to his views as Congressional Democrats and a growing number of Republicans press for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq on the excuse that the Iraqi government hasn't met a set of political "benchmarks."

WASHINGTON — Senior military sources in Iraq said Tuesday they have no intention of moving up an assessment on progress in Iraq from September nor will an interim report due this week suggest that the Iraqi government has failed to reach any benchmarks for success. A spokesman to Gen. David Petraeus, the head of Multinational Forces in Iraq, told FOX News that the report that is due in September will be delivered in September. The remark was made following reports that Petraeus may deliver the report early in the face of growing impatience for the war on Capitol Hill. "There...

WASHINGTON - A Bush administration report to Congress citing a lack of progress by the Baghdad government is "a look at the starting line" of the U.S. troop surge and shouldn't be used by critics to demand withdrawal, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. "What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," said Tony Snow, who defended the administration's war policy and argued that it's too soon to be talking about end-game strategies. "Some of the benchmarks have been made, some of them haven't," he said. Snow confirmed...

progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reform, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday. One likely result of the report will be a vastly accelerated debate among President Bush's top aides on withdrawing troops and scaling back the U.S. presence in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reform, speeding up the Bush administration's reckoning on what to do next, a U.S. official said Monday. One likely result of the report will be a vastly accelerated debate among President Bush's top aides on withdrawing troops and scaling back the U.S. presence in Iraq. The "pivot point" for addressing the matter will no longer be Sept. 15, as initially envisioned, when a full report on Bush's so-called "surge" plan is due, but...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq is on target to meet by September key political benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said Sunday. Iraqi lawmakers have cut their planned two-month recess in half and will be working six-day weeks for the rest of this month to try to pass the provisions by September, he said. Al-Rubaie disputed a report in Sunday's Washington Post that cited senior U.S. officials as saying the Iraqi government "is unlikely to meet any of the political and security goals or timelines President Bush set for it in January when he...

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2007 – It is crucial for the Iraqi government to meet benchmarks for political and economic progress, President Bush stressed to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in an Oval Office meeting yesterday. “I told the president that I'm fully committed to helping the Iraqi government achieve important objectives,” Bush said during a short news conference after the meeting. “We call them benchmarks. A political law necessary to show the Iraqi citizens that there is a unified government willing to work on the interests of all people. The president fully understands the need for the Iraqi government to...

Iraq's parliament should pass a new oil law and make progress on amending the constitution before the end of the month, two key "benchmarks" being demanded by U.S. officials, a top Iraqi official said yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, one of the highest-ranking Kurdish officials in the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said that despite the increasingly pessimistic debate in Washington, Iraqi lawmakers should take action on both difficult issues in the coming days. Mr. Salih said Iraqis are watching the U.S. debate over the Iraq war with mounting concern, saying that even recent signs of progress in...

"We must give all our men and women in uniform everything they need to thwart the insurgency in Iraq and come home safely and soon. You know, we can't tie the hands of the guys on the ground with timelines or benchmarks. And worse, we shouldn't be using an emergency troop spending bill as a way to finance the political gimmickry of special interest projects."(Rep. Sam Johnson, 3/23/07)

WASHINGTON — The United States is not planning a war against Iran and believes the current diplomatic process is getting results, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said February 2. Gates also told Pentagon reporters that he does not see a classic civil war in Iraq but, instead, four separate overlapping conflicts. In addition, Gates outlined benchmarks the Iraqi government should meet for continued U.S. military support. He said he is recommending that President Bush nominate Admiral Timothy Keating to be the new chief of U.S. Pacific Command, which oversees military forces in East Asia. Keating currently leads Northern Command, responsible for...

I was listening to my colleague Hugh Hewitt's radio show the other when he was interviewing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman from Minnesota. It was nice to hear Sen. Coleman's apparent disdain for the idiotic, meaningless, non-binding Senate resolution complaining about the President's troop surge plan. In fact, here's what Sen. Coleman said to Hugh: [Bottom line is I voted against the resolution that I think is…I’m going to be very blunt…is a pull-out resolution. This isn’t an abandon Iraq resolution. The words don’t exactly say that, but I listened to John Murtha testify, and I listened to the reaction of...