They are telling you all this to remove it as a campaign issue and keep furthering the agenda.
"Baghdad makes progress at achingly slow pace: US declares efforts 'satisfactory' on 15 of 18 benchmarks" by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press | July 2, 2008
WASHINGTON - The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are "satisfactory" - almost twice what it determined to be the case a year ago. The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks - enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues - are unsatisfactory.
Overall, militia control has declined and Baghdad's security forces have demonstrated their "willingness and effectiveness to use these authorities to pursue extremists in all provinces, regardless of population or extremist demographics," as illustrated by recent operations, the White House concludes.
Yup, GEORGE W. BUSH finally, FINALLY, WON IRAQ -- JUST IN TIME for the 2008 elections!
How much shit can you chew, 'murkns?
Representative Mike McIntyre, a North Carolina Democrat who requested the administration's updated assessment, scoffed at the May report, which he says uses the false standard of determining whether progress on a goal is "satisfactory" vs. whether the benchmark has been met. He estimates that only a few of the 18 benchmarks have been fully achieved.
Democrats also say more solid progress could have been made had the administration starting pulling troops out sooner.
"We've tried repeatedly to get the administration to shift responsibility to the Iraqi leaders for their own future, since there is broad consensus that there is no military solution and only a political settlement among the Iraqis can end the conflict," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The administration, however, has repeatedly missed opportunities to shift this burden to the Iraqis and appears willing to do so again," Levin said.--MORE--"
O.K, Levin, YOU WANT IT, YOU GOT IT!!!!
"Sunnis near rejoining Shi'ite led government ; Detainees' release had been one condition" by Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post | July 2, 2008
BAGHDAD - Iraq's main Sunni Muslim political bloc is on the verge of rejoining the Shi'ite-led government after a nearly a year-long boycott, a step widely seen as vital to reconciling the nation's warring factions.
Sunni leaders said yesterday that they delivered names to fill five Cabinet posts and the position of deputy prime minister to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He plans to submit them to a parliamentary vote, but it was unclear when this would occur.
The bloc withdrew from the government in August over demands that included the release of Sunni detainees from Iraq's prisons and constitutional reforms.
Now, Sunni leaders said the government had done enough to address their core conditions, including passing an amnesty law that has freed thousands of Sunni detainees this year. The leaders said they were also encouraged by the government's efforts in tackling Shi'ite militias, namely the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"We feel that a great deal of them have been fulfilled," said Salim Abdullah al-Jubori, a spokesman for the Sunni alliance, known as the Tawafuq Front.
If the Sunni group returns, it would mark a political victory for Maliki as well as achieve a key US policy goal. Sunnis would have a greater voice in decision making on a cabinet currently dominated by Shi'ites and Kurds.
But previous deals to bring the bloc back into the government failed at the eleventh hour over which Sunnis should receive which ministries. The Sunnis are seeking control over five ministries - culture, higher education, planning, women's affairs, and foreign affairs, said Sunni leaders.
The most contentious had been the Ministry of Planning, the most influential of those ministries. It is led by Ali Baban, who abandoned the Sunni alliance in order to remain in his post.
Yesterday, Jubori said that the Ministry of Planning would revert to the bloc's control, which would place Baban's future in question. "The Ministry of Planning is going to be one of our ministries," he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari urged Iraqi lawmakers, in an address to Iraq's parliament yesterday, to sign a new security agreement that would permit US troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires this year. Zebari recently met with President Bush in Washington to discuss the pact.
Iraqis from across the nation's political divide are concerned the pact would allow the United States to continue to exert power and infringe on Iraq's sovereignty. Zebari told lawmakers that any agreement would last one or two years.
In Diyala province, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint in Mendily, 43.5 miles east of the provincial capital, Baqubah, killing three, said police. In a separate attack, a roadside bomb in the town of Buhroz killed three civilians."Yeah, that's right; save the ACTUAL WAR for the LAST PARAGRAPH -- and put out a FALSE-FLAG COVER STORY to boot!!!!!
So WTF you complaining about, Levin?
