Report Shows Iraq Meeting Benchmarks

With little fanfare and scant media attention, the Bush Administration released a new report on progress in Iraq to Congress in May. The report concludes that the Iraqi government has made "satisfactory" progress on 15 of 18 benchmarks established by Congress and the Administration. That is double the number of satisfactory marks the Iraqi government received in a similar report one year ago, as the troop surge was being fully implemented. The remaining benchmarks that Baghdad still has work to do in order to meet are the hardest, including disarming militias and distributing oil revenues. Still, the sheer number of benchmarks showing progress compared to a year ago is another confirmation of the success of the Bush Administration's troop surge.

Democrats in Congress do not see it that way, however. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Iraq would have made more progress if the United States had withdrawn, rather than add, troops. "The administration...has repeatedly missed opportunities to shift this burden to the Iraqis and appears willing to do so again," he said. "[T]here is broad consensus that there is no military solution and only a political settlement among the Iraqis can end the conflict." But the Iraqi government is increasingly providing that political solution, thanks in no small measure to the security improvements brought about by the troop surge and the growing capabilities of Iraqi Army and police forces.

Perhaps the best indicator of progress in Iraq is the slight but perceptible shift in Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's position on the war. His top foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, said in an interview yesterday that Obama will listen to the counsel of the commanders in Iraq, if elected, and declared the candidate's pledge to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months of his inauguration a "timetable" as opposed to a deadline. That slight softening of Obama's position on the war reflects the growing realization that conditions in Iraq are different and that the American people realize that there is a chance for a real victory there.