Sep 14 2007
Iraq Halfway To Political Success
Since I do not wish or hope the US will fail in Iraq I see a report from the adminstration that Iraq has performed satisfactorily on half the benchmarks means they are halfway to success – quite a lot of progress over the last year.
day after President George W. Bush cited enough progress in Iraq to begin a limited withdrawal of U.S. troops, a White House report on Friday showed Iraqi leaders had performed satisfactorily on only half of their key goals.
The administration’s Iraq status report underscored the challenge Bush faces in selling his strategy to skeptical Democratic lawmakers and to an American public increasingly opposed to the war.
Our impotent and gridlocked Congress cannot get anything done in the calm of DC, but they can sure whine about a country on the front lines of the war with al-Qaeda with people being bombed into oblivion, families and leaders killed, etc who gets halfway through their self imposed checklist to success. And since The Surge is only 2 months old at full strength, the political solutions should start to accelerate in the future, making it possible the list could be mostly done by Christmas. The Surrendercrats on the left will lose what miniscule credibility they have left if this happens. The professional handwringers will find America is not interested in quitters who panic and try and run from our challenges. We prefer leaders who succeed, not whiners who cringe in corners.
The glass in Iraq is half full, and still filling up. It is not emptying – not one drop.
I see good news and bad news. The Sunnis who had “boycotted” the government have come back in the past week as I figured they would once the weather started to cool off a little in Baghdad. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the oil revenue sharing agreement appears to have fallen apart in the past week. So they seem to be spinning in circles somewhat.
I wish the Iraqis had done something like we do here in the US with out Senate elections. I wish their assembly would be up for partial elections every two years or so. This allows changes in public attitudes to be reflected in the government at shorter intervals but not so much that the assembly would whipsaw by replacing the entire body.
CP
At least revenue sharing is going on with or without an existing law.
Also oil related, they just started up the pipeline from Kirkuk to Jordan which will give them additional revenue and an alternate path if any issues occur in the Hormuz area.
In a couple of elections they may be able to transition from slates of candidates to individual candidate elections.
My understanding is that part of the problem is the amount of foreign investment they will allow. But let’s wait and see if they end up coming up with something.