Iraq Missed Targets

There is a report coming out this week that will not bolster Bush's hopes that his surge is succeeding in anyway that he had hope for and the sadness shall be in the waste of lives during this escalation for so little gain.

The 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 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 instead will come this week when the interim mid-July assessment is released, the official said. The report, required by law, is expected to be delivered to Capitol Hill by Thursday or Friday, as the Senate takes up a $649 billion defense policy bill and votes on a Democratic amendment ordering troop withdrawals to begin in 120 days.

Also being drafted are several Republican-backed proposals that would force a new course in Iraq, including one by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would require U.S. troops to abandon combat missions. Collins and Nelson say their binding amendment would order the U.S. mission to focus on training the Iraqi security forces, targeting al-Qaida members and protecting Iraq's borders.

Republican support for the war has eroded steadily since Bush's decision in January to send some 30,000 additional troops to Iraq. At the time, Bush said the Iraqis agreed to meet certain benchmarks, such as enacting a law to divide the nation's oil reserves.

This spring, Congress agreed to continue funding the war through September but demanded that Bush certify on July 15 and again on Sept. 15 that the Iraqis were living up to their political promises or forgo U.S. aid dollars. The official said it is highly unlikely that Bush will withhold or suspend aid to the Iraqis based on the report. A draft version of the administration's progress report circulated among various government agencies in Washington on Monday.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Monday tried to lower expectations on the report, contending that all of the additional troops had just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress by now.

What will happen is hard to predict, but as the President loses more and more of his most fervent supporters it becomes obvious that things will change radically in the next six months for good or bad, and Iraq will be the loser, no matter what happens! I am already sad for the innocent people of Iraq, whose lives have been disrupted by our ineptness and by evil and hatred that cannot be fixed in a matter of a few years. Their deaths after we leave shall be on the national consience as well it should, and in particular the elitist, who can not ever imagine actually fighting for anything, whether it be freedom, democracy or just against tyranny..There are those who will fight for nothing, and hate the very military that gives them the right and freedom to be anti- everything that might imply that you love America and the ideals that she stands for and fights for!!

We screwed up in invading Iraq after 9/11 and that is our only mistake. TRYING to do the right thing by these people after we had already invaded and won the war, was not!

I salute and mourn all of the young men and women who died trying to fix a mess we should have left alone..You are Heroes and may you Rest In Peace!! Bush and his warmongerer's shall Burn in Hell!

Please do not take it out on the men and women in uniform who were only doing their Duty and Deserve our Respect in not our Congratulations!