Not as much as one might want, but progress none the less.

The Bush administration will assert in the next few days that progress in carrying out the new American strategy in Iraq has been satisfactory on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress, according to several administration officials.

But it will qualify some verdicts by saying that even when the political performance of the Iraqi government has been unsatisfactory, it is too early to make final judgments, the officials said.

The administrationÂ’s decision to qualify many of the political benchmarks will enable it to present a more optimistic assessment than if it had provided the pass-fail judgment sought by Congress when it approved funding for the war this spring.

The administration officials who provided details of the draft report to The New York Times, insisting on anonymity, did so partly to rebut claims by members of Congress in recent days that almost no progress had been made in Iraq since President Bush altered course by ordering the deployment of about 30,000 additional troops earlier this year.

One of the realities of war is that progress often comes in fits and starts. The fact that there has been this much progress is a positive thing, not the negative that some would prefer to spin it as. Some of the measures will require additional political progress within the Iraqi government, while other aspects will require continued use of military force. But regardless, this report puts teh lie to war opponents who claim there is no progress in Iraq -- and therefore seek retreat and surrender.

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 272 words, total size 2 kb.