Bush, in another episode of..."Saying Something Doesn't Make It So"
Thankfully, the actual report isn't one of those 3,000-page monsters, so most people can just skip the spin entirely and breeze through the actual report themselves, which I hope people do. Matter of fact, here's a PDF copy of the report. After skimming through it this morning, I came away from it with at least this much: the REAL results are actually worse (before you dismiss me as a liberal hack, please read it for yourself) than the president is letting on. In at least one of the benchmarks, what the administration is characterizing as a satisfactory grade isn't anywhere near satisfactory to me.
What I wonder is how many Americans will stop thinking at the headlines, and how many will actually put forth the effort to skim through the report? Is 25 pages too much to ask of Americans today? How much is it worth? Ten minutes of their time?
They've already made it clear that they won't tolerate higher taxes to pay for the war, won't tolerate too much negative news coverage of the war, many of the wealthiest among us won't ask our children to fight in the war -- will they sacrifice 10 minutes of their time to read this report and consider it thoughtfully?
(i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.This benchmark clearly called for the completion of the constitutional review. Formation of the review committee indicates progress, yes, but not satisfactory completion of the benchmark in my mind. Where I work, it's easy to form committees; anyone can form a committee, but actually finishing the work assigned to that committee is the goal. This is a missed benchmark; not a satisfactorily met one.
The Council of Representatives (COR) formed the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) on November 15, 2006. The Constitutional Review is now underway. The CRC presented a partial list of recommendations on May 23, 2007, in an interim report and received an extension from the COR until the end of August to resolve outstanding issues concerning: (i) Presidential powers, (ii) the powers of the regions vs. the central government, and (iii) the status of Kirkuk (Article 140 of the Constitution). The political blocs still need to reach an accommodation on these difficult political issues.
The Embassy will continue to discuss with the CRC Chairmen and the COR Speaker and Deputy Speakers the need to develop a well-defined plan for the COR debate of the report. The Embassy is also continuing to discuss with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) the necessary preparatory steps for a public referendum on proposed constitutional revisions. As noted in the Iraq Study Group Report Recommendation 26, there is a role for UNAMI in the constitutional review process.
Read through the rest of the report yourself. It's more of the same, trying to paint a pig. The touted 8 of 18 met benchmarks spin coming out of the right wing camp is untrue.
- July 12, 2007
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