An assessment of 18 benchmarks established by the Bush administration for Iraq shows satisfactory progress in nine, or half of the areas outlined. This is only slightly better than the last time progress in Iraq was assessed, two months ago.
At that time, President Bush stressed that the results were preliminary. He said he would wait until this latest assessment to see if his strategy for Iraq needed to be reconsidered.
The congressionally mandated report issued Friday comes after Mr. Bush told the American people Thursday night that the United States is succeeding in Iraq. In a nationally televised address, the president said the success made in Iraq will allow for the withdrawal next July of those 30,000 additional troops that were deployed to Iraq earlier this year.
He also said that progress justifies the continued presence of the main body of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Mr. Bush told his audience Thursday that the Iraqi government has succeeded in several aspects, such as passing a budget, sharing oil revenues, and bringing members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party back into government.
This so-called "de-Ba'athification" was the one area that the new report said has moved from the unsatisfactory to the satisfactory column.
In the Democratic Party's response to Mr. Bush's speech, Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, a military veteran, said the surge of troops deployed this year has failed to achieve what Mr. Bush previously identified as the primary goal - to give Iraq's leaders a chance to achieve political reconciliation. - VOA News
