Parts of Iraq Report Are Grim Where Bush Was Upbeat
tur...@mailinator.com
WASHINGTON, July 13 - The mixed progress report on Iraq that the White
House submitted to Congress this week included several grim
assessments of the Iraqi government that contrasted with the more
upbeat public statements of President Bush, his top aides and public
White House briefing materials in the past few weeks.
In several recent cases, the White House discussed progress toward
benchmarks that the review found unsatisfactory.
Two weeks ago, when a reporter asked Tony Snow, the White House press
secretary, for "any signs they are making progress in any way," he
said, "We do know that they are obviously working toward oil law and
distribution laws," and added, "but it's a parliamentary process." The
Americans and the Iraqis consider the proposed Iraqi law to distribute
evenly oil revenues throughout the country to be a crucial salve for
internal division.
When the reporter followed up by saying, "That doesn't sound like any
progress," Mr. Snow responded, "It may not, but on the other hand, it
could."
A few weeks earlier, when a reporter traveling with Mr. Bush in Europe
asked him if he had seen any progress toward national reconciliation
in Iraq, he said, "Yes, look, they're close to getting an oil deal
done."
But in addressing progress toward the oil law, the report concluded,
"The current status is unsatisfactory, but it is too early to tell
whether the government of Iraq will enact and implement legislation to
ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources to all
Iraqis."
The report said, "The effect of the limited progress toward this
benchmark has been to reduce the perceived confidence in, and
effectiveness of, the Iraqi government."
That apparent contradiction highlights the difficulties the White
House is facing in balancing the president's desire to rally a
pessimistic public behind the war effort with his political need to
demonstrate that he is following a realistic approach, after years of
optimistic predictions from the administration and its allies that did
not bear out.
In interviews on Friday, White House officials said it also reflected
the difference between progress, of which they said there were signs,
and the achievement of goals, for which the results were more mixed.
In all, the report, which was mandated by Congress as a preliminary
analysis of the success of Mr. Bush's latest Iraq strategy, gave
unsatisfactory marks to eight of the 18 benchmarks identified as fair
standards upon which to assess progress. The report gave eight
satisfactory marks and said it was too early to determine progress for
two benchmarks. Many of the satisfactory grades were on military and
security matters. Many of the unsatisfactory ones were given to
measures meant to foster political reconciliation, including a
proposed "de-Baathification" law to set conditions for some Saddam
Hussein-era officials to return to government posts.
In a speech in Washington in early May, Mr. Bush said: "Leaders have
taken initial steps toward an agreement on de-Baathification policy.
That's an important piece of reconciliation that we think ought to go
forward."
On May 23, Mr. Bush struck a more demanding tone, saying: "The Iraqi
government has a lot of work to do. They must meet its responsibility
to the Iraqi people and achieve benchmarks it has set, including
adoption of a national oil law, preparations for provincial elections,
progress on a new de-Baathification policy."
But for the past several months, he and other administration officials
have said that the Iraqis deserve patience, as even the United States
Congress has been slow to enact new laws of national import. The
report offered a less forgiving assessment: "The Government of Iraq
has not made satisfactory progress toward enacting and implementing
legislation on de-Baathification reform." It also said, "Given the
lack of satisfactory progress, we have not achieved the desired
reconciliation effect that meaningful and broadly accepted de-
Baathification reform might bring about."
The report expressed dissatisfaction on a focal benchmark, the ability
of Iraqi security forces to act efficiently without American help,
saying, "The Iraqi government has made unsatisfactory progress toward
increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of
operating independently."
Yet in a news release given to reporters on June 28, two weeks before
the report was made public, the White House said it was encouraged by
improvements in the security forces, declaring, "The Iraqi security
forces are growing in number, becoming more capable, and coming closer
to the day when they can assume responsibility for defending their own
country."
Gordon D. Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council,
which oversaw the drafting of the report, said that the Congressional
report required the White House to take a snapshot in time, and that
developments in Iraq appeared different from one moment to the next.
"For example, the oil law has not been passed, so it was deemed
unsatisfactory," he said. "But over the course of the last six months,
when it moved through the various legislative steps after starting
from nothing, those were signs of progress."