GAO PAINTS BLEAK PICTURE OF BUSH'S "PROGRESS" IN IRAQ

So now that the GAO has found that Iraq has missed or failed in 15 of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks, the White House and the Pentagon are disputing the findings. In other words, fit the evidence around the policy. If the report is not what Bush and Cheney want to hear, then change it!

Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks write in yesterday's Washington Post:

"Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

"The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq."

This is truly embarrassing for Bush & Co. We know that the White House is writing the report to be given by Petraeus and Crocker, notwithstanding Petraeus' protestations that he is writing his own report. And we can predict the content of the WH report: good progress is being made in Iraq; the Iraqis are standing up so Americans can stand down; Al Maliki is creating a unity government, etc., etc. ad nauseam. Does Bush think that anyone really believes his spin? Even Republicans must cringe when they hear Bush's propaganda on how good things are going in Iraq.

Karen DeYoung writes a follow-up in today's WashPo:

"Democrats seized on the GAO draft conclusions, first reported in yesterday's Washington Post, to warn that President Bush would be likely to distort the Iraq situation when he makes his own report to Congress in mid-September after long-awaited testimony by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. "As in the past, President Bush stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the facts on the ground about the sectarian civil war in Iraq or the growing bipartisan opposition to his failed policies," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

"Pelosi cited negative conclusions in the GAO report and last month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to say that "the Iraqi government has failed to achieve required reforms." Influential Republicans have joined Democrats in recent months to demand that Bush begin drawing down U.S. troops. Bush has argued that the strategy he announced in January, which increased the U.S. presence to more than 160,000 troops, is succeeding and deserves more time."