[NYTr] Bush blames Iraqi leaders for his own blunders

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Guess the Bushies just chose the wrong puppets - err, leaders, then.
Either way, it's the Half-wit Bush regime's fault, not Iraq's. -NYTr]

Reuters - Sep 15, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1423419220070915?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews

White House faults Iraqi leaders

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A day after President George W. Bush cited
enough progress in Iraq to justify U.S. troop reductions, the White
House told Congress on Friday that Iraqi leaders had failed to meet
half of their key goals.

The administration's acknowledgment of shortfalls in the Iraqi
government's performance underscored the challenges Bush faces in
selling his strategy to skeptical Democratic lawmakers and an American
public increasingly opposed to the war.

In a report ordered by Congress, the White House concluded the Iraqis
had made satisfactory progress on just nine of 18 political and
security benchmarks and unsatisfactory progress in seven. It said it
was unable to rate two other targets.

Democrats in control of Congress had insisted on a review of Iraqi
efforts to achieve national reconciliation as a condition for continued
funding for a buildup of U.S. forces intended to help curb sectarian
violence.

As Bush and top aides kept up a public relations push to rally support
for his Iraq strategy, the White House played down the negative side of
the latest status report and pointed instead to what it described as
encouraging signs.

But House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer accused the administration of
"attempting to paint a far rosier picture of Iraqi progress on key
benchmarks than is justified by the reality on the ground."

The report followed a televised prime-time address by Bush on Thursday
night in which he embraced recommendations by his top commander in
Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, for a limited withdrawal of about 20,000
troops by July.

CONDITIONS ON THE GROUND

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he hoped the United
States could withdraw another five combat brigades -- about 20,000
troops -- from Iraq in the second half of next year, but cautioned that
it would depend on conditions on the ground.

"My hope is that when he does his assessment in March ... Gen. Petraeus
will be able to say that he thinks that the pace of drawdowns can
continue at the same rate in the second half of the year as in the
first half of the year," Gates told a news conference.

Bush said security improvements had made it possible to start bringing
troops home, but he defied calls for a dramatic change of course in the
unpopular war.

The partial drawdown will roll back troop strength from the current
169,000 to around the same levels the United States had in Iraq before
Bush ordered a troop increase in January.

Democratic leaders said Bush was trying to obscure the fact that most
of the troops being withdrawn would have left anyway under current
deployment timetables, and they demanded a faster, broader withdrawal.

But Vice President Dick Cheney, on the road in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
accused critics of ignoring the chaos he said would follow a
precipitous U.S. pullout.

Visiting a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, Bush hammered home the
themes of his Oval Office address and urged congressional support. He
hopes to prevent further defections by fellow Republicans that could
threaten war funding.

Acknowledging pressure from his opponents to bring troops home, Bush
insisted: "Well, now we've got security in the right direction and we
are bringing our troops home."

With Democrats denouncing Bush for what they see as an attempt to buy
time for a failed policy, the Iraq status report seemed to provide them
with more ammunition.

It deemed unsatisfactory the Iraqi government's efforts to enact
crucial oil-sharing legislation, to increase the number of Iraqi
security force units able to operate independently and to eliminate
sectarian bias in the Iraqi police.

The report gave a satisfactory grade, however, for progress in ensuring
the rights of minority political parties, for advances toward easing
curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party joining the
military and civil service and for providing three brigades to support
a security crackdown in Baghdad.

Recent independent assessments have painted a much bleaker picture of a
dysfunctional Iraqi government.

Some of Bush's fellow Republicans have also voiced doubts over his
strategy. Republicans lost control of Congress in last November's
election, largely due to public disenchantment over Iraq. Recent polls
show Americans 2-to-1 against the war.