14 May 2007
September is not too far off, the time when the top General in Iraq will give his report on the success or failure of the “surge”. How will success be measured? The President said recently that there are signs of success as sectarian violence is down in Baghdad. He failed to mention that car bombs and US soldier’s deaths are up. Is this success?
How about benchmarks wanted for the Iraqi Government? After VP Cheney chided them about their planned two month vacation, they have lowered it to one month or perhaps two weeks. For me, that’s two weeks too many. They need to put their noses to the grindstone and make some real progress. They are resisting US pressure to enact oil law which is an important benchmark. Little is being done to curb continued sectarian violence in the country. Nothing seems to be being done to stop corruption in many areas of the government. If things in these areas don’t shape up by September, then I say we need to give the combat troops their marching orders to come home…Joan Lough
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