Who said anything about benchmarks?

September 13, 2007
Who said anything about benchmarks?

Sometimes, these guys make it too easy. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, yesterday, in his final appearance:

"No, benchmarks were something that Congress wanted to use as a metric. And we're going to produce a report. But the fact is that the situation is bigger and more complex, and you need to look at the whole picture."

Reality, as reported last week:

It was the White House and the Iraqi government, not Congress, that first proposed the benchmarks for Iraq that are now producing failing grades, a provenance that raises questions about why the administration is declaring now that the government's performance is not the best measure of change.

The administration presented a to-do list and said, "Judge us in September on these points." They've successfully completed three of the 18 tasks. In response, the new line is, "To-do lists are stupid."

Iraq benchmark findings

August 30, 2007
Iraq benchmark findings

IRAQ HAS NOT MET REQUIREMENTS TOWARD:

• Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations


• Ensuring that the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for outlaws, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation, as Bush says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pledged to do


• Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification


• Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of 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, Shia Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner


• 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


• Ensuring that the Iraqi Security Forces are providing evenhanded enforcement of the law


• Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently


• Ensuring that Iraq's political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi Security Forces


• Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security


• Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections


• Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review


• Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty


• 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.

Iraq Oil Benchmark Won't Be Met

July 20, 2007
Iraq Oil Benchmark Won't Be Met

A confidential intelligence report prepared for U.S. officials this week concludes a key U.S. benchmark of progress in Iraq, a law to divide oil revenues equitably among the provinces, "will not be agreed by September, even if cosmetic legislation is put in place."

An agreement on how to divide oil profits among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish areas is one of 18 key benchmarks of progress to be reviewed by the U.S. in September.