WASHINGTON D.C., July 15, 2007
(CBS) The Battle for Iraq, and the war of words over that battle here at home, pushed most other stories out of the news this past week.
The Bush administration released an interim report on the war assessing progress on 18 so-called benchmarks, ranging from disarming Iraqi militias to allocating funds for reconstruction. It found that of those eighteen benchmarks, satisfactory progress was made on only eight.
At a Thursday White House press conference, President Bush vowed to stick to his Iraq war strategy.
"When we start drawing down our forces in Iraq it will be because our military commanders say the conditions on the ground are right, not because pollsters say it will be good politics," he told reporters.
Still, the president acknowledged growing public frustration.
"People are — there's war fatigue in America," Mr. Bush said. "It's affecting our psychology."
Iraqi troops on the hunt for intelligence about al Qaeda in Iraq looks good on the surface, but the harsh reality is that the partnership isn't up to standards. The ability of Iraqi forces to take over security was one of the key "benchmarks" of the Interim Report that got an unsatisfactory grade.
While the report is only a snapshot of what progress has been made towards meeting what is in effect the price demanded by Congress for the so-called "surge" of 30,000 extra troops, its importance has been heightened by the emphasis President Bush placed on the hunt for al Qaeda.
"So we're working to defeat al Qaeda and other extremists," he said.
In total, the president mentioned the movement more than 20 times in his appearance in the White House press room.
"It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda," Mr. Bush said.
The soldiers on the ground in Iraq see rooting out al Qaeda as their main task, according to Colonel Stephen Townsend, whose men are conducting an operation dubbed Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala province.
"Al Qaeda has declared Baqouba as the capital of the Islamic state of Iraq, and this is their shadow government for their insurgency, and I don't think we should let that stand," Col. Stephen Townsend, Commander 3rd Stryker Brigade, told CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
It's no easy task. The insurgents are so entrenched and organized that they even have a sophisticated public relations machine. A video of an attack using a roadside bomb or IED on an Iraqi patrol was put out by the grandly named Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production of the Islamic State of Iraq.
One of their offices was recently raided by U.S. forces. Its capabilities were geared to take on the official American spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner.
"It produced CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets and web-related propaganda products and contained documents clearly identifying al Qaeda in Iraq's intent to use media as a weapon," he said.
The organization and efficiency is in stark contrast to Iraq's parliament, which missed the benchmark set for it, and is taking the month of August off anyway. That comes as no surprise to Rick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project.
"We pretty well know that their government is dysfunctional, and it's not likely to be functional, so to put benchmarks that expect them to perform better than the United States Congress is unrealistic," Barton said.
In fact the government barely functions at all except to look after narrow, sectarian interests.
A boycott by a Sunni bloc and some Shia members has stalled any chance of passing a law on sharing oil revenues among the three main ethnic groups, a piece of legislation that is considered essential to the country's political and economic well-being.
The same applies to a law on de-Baathification which would allow former members of the party of Saddam's rule to get back to their old jobs, a reversal of the original American policy here.
An unsatisfactory grade for the politicians comes as no surprise to ordinary Iraqis whose benchmarks are basic and the failure to meet them obvious in every aspect of their lives.
River fish, a cheap and traditional source of protein, are no longer on menus because the most popular (a type of carp known as masgouf) have been deemed unsafe because they eat the bodies that are thrown into the Tigris river after executions by death squads.
That doesn't stop kids jumping in for relief from the 110 degrees-plus heat, but then they have no other way to cool off. Just as security failures have a domino effect, so does lack of other amenities. The supply of electricity in Baghdad is below pre-war levels. Buying a block of ice and chopping it up is the only means many families have to preserve food or provide a cold drink for kids.
The problem is that the water it is made from is almost certainly polluted. Sewage can't be treated or pumped, so it ends up in fetid pools and seeps into what is left of the water system.
Maybe that's just one of the reasons Iraqi politicians never travel anywhere without heavy security, both local and Western, and are mortified at the idea that the benchmark for the pullout of American troops might come too soon for their liking.
(CBS) The Battle for Iraq, and the war of words over that battle here at home, pushed most other stories out of the news this past week.
The Bush administration released an interim report on the war assessing progress on 18 so-called benchmarks, ranging from disarming Iraqi militias to allocating funds for reconstruction. It found that of those eighteen benchmarks, satisfactory progress was made on only eight.
At a Thursday White House press conference, President Bush vowed to stick to his Iraq war strategy.
"When we start drawing down our forces in Iraq it will be because our military commanders say the conditions on the ground are right, not because pollsters say it will be good politics," he told reporters.
Still, the president acknowledged growing public frustration.
"People are — there's war fatigue in America," Mr. Bush said. "It's affecting our psychology."
Iraqi troops on the hunt for intelligence about al Qaeda in Iraq looks good on the surface, but the harsh reality is that the partnership isn't up to standards. The ability of Iraqi forces to take over security was one of the key "benchmarks" of the Interim Report that got an unsatisfactory grade.
While the report is only a snapshot of what progress has been made towards meeting what is in effect the price demanded by Congress for the so-called "surge" of 30,000 extra troops, its importance has been heightened by the emphasis President Bush placed on the hunt for al Qaeda.
"So we're working to defeat al Qaeda and other extremists," he said.
In total, the president mentioned the movement more than 20 times in his appearance in the White House press room.
"It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda," Mr. Bush said.
The soldiers on the ground in Iraq see rooting out al Qaeda as their main task, according to Colonel Stephen Townsend, whose men are conducting an operation dubbed Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala province.
"Al Qaeda has declared Baqouba as the capital of the Islamic state of Iraq, and this is their shadow government for their insurgency, and I don't think we should let that stand," Col. Stephen Townsend, Commander 3rd Stryker Brigade, told CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
It's no easy task. The insurgents are so entrenched and organized that they even have a sophisticated public relations machine. A video of an attack using a roadside bomb or IED on an Iraqi patrol was put out by the grandly named Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production of the Islamic State of Iraq.
One of their offices was recently raided by U.S. forces. Its capabilities were geared to take on the official American spokesman Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner.
"It produced CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets and web-related propaganda products and contained documents clearly identifying al Qaeda in Iraq's intent to use media as a weapon," he said.
The organization and efficiency is in stark contrast to Iraq's parliament, which missed the benchmark set for it, and is taking the month of August off anyway. That comes as no surprise to Rick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project.
"We pretty well know that their government is dysfunctional, and it's not likely to be functional, so to put benchmarks that expect them to perform better than the United States Congress is unrealistic," Barton said.
In fact the government barely functions at all except to look after narrow, sectarian interests.
A boycott by a Sunni bloc and some Shia members has stalled any chance of passing a law on sharing oil revenues among the three main ethnic groups, a piece of legislation that is considered essential to the country's political and economic well-being.
The same applies to a law on de-Baathification which would allow former members of the party of Saddam's rule to get back to their old jobs, a reversal of the original American policy here.
An unsatisfactory grade for the politicians comes as no surprise to ordinary Iraqis whose benchmarks are basic and the failure to meet them obvious in every aspect of their lives.
River fish, a cheap and traditional source of protein, are no longer on menus because the most popular (a type of carp known as masgouf) have been deemed unsafe because they eat the bodies that are thrown into the Tigris river after executions by death squads.
That doesn't stop kids jumping in for relief from the 110 degrees-plus heat, but then they have no other way to cool off. Just as security failures have a domino effect, so does lack of other amenities. The supply of electricity in Baghdad is below pre-war levels. Buying a block of ice and chopping it up is the only means many families have to preserve food or provide a cold drink for kids.
The problem is that the water it is made from is almost certainly polluted. Sewage can't be treated or pumped, so it ends up in fetid pools and seeps into what is left of the water system.
Maybe that's just one of the reasons Iraqi politicians never travel anywhere without heavy security, both local and Western, and are mortified at the idea that the benchmark for the pullout of American troops might come too soon for their liking.