continuing to defend the indefensible

Bush press secretary defends Iraq policy

WASHINGTON - A Bush administration report to Congress citing a lack of progress by the Baghdad government is "a look at the starting line" of the U.S. troop surge and shouldn't be used by critics to demand withdrawal, a White House spokesman said Tuesday.

---
Shouldn't the "starting line" have been about 4 years ago?
This is absurd...a lack of progress shouldn't be criticized...apparently, we should just continue with the "stay the course" policy until bush is out of office....

And from Think Progress:

Six-month anniversary of escalation in Iraq.

Six months ago, on Jan. 10, President Bush announced his plan to send more than 20,000 more troops into Iraq. The Gavel has highlights of what has happened since that time:

590 U.S. soldiers have died and 3,575 have been wounded in Iraq since January 10, 2007. [icasualties.org, 1/10/07-7/9/07]

At least 13,463 civilians and members of the Iraqi Security Forces have died since January 2007, according to media reports. [icasualties.org]

According to an internal military assessment, the U.S. military’s plan to secure Baghdad against a rising insurgency is falling far short of its goal. Fewer than one-third of Baghdad’s neighborhoods are under the control of U.S. and Iraqi forces. [New York Times, 6/4/07]

No progress has been made on the political benchmarks the Iraqi government was supposed to have met already. Oil sharing legislation, the reversal of deBaathification, new election laws, scheduling of provincial elections, amending the constitution and efforts to disband the militias are all languishing either in parliament or in negotiations among the three parties. [Washington Post, 7/8/07]

UPDATE: The Washington Post reminds us that the administration “initially envisioned a troop increase lasting six to eight months,” but is now anticipating “keeping the extra troops in place until next spring and then beginning to pull them back, one brigade at a time.”

UPDATE II: Atrios has quotes by various pundits from one Friedman ago.

---