NYT: Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders (and target dates)

[jefferson_dem]

January 8, 2007
Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 —

President Bush’s new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday.

Among these “benchmarks” are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government’s policy toward former Baath Party members, the officials said.

As the policy is being debated in Washington, the new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that his plan was to send additional American troops, expected to be part of the policy change, into Baghdad’s toughest neighborhoods, and that under the new strategy it may take another “two or three years” to gain the upper hand in the war.

Without saying what the specific penalties for failing to achieve the goals would be, American officials insisted that they intended to hold the Iraqis to a realistic timetable for action, but the Americans and Iraqis have agreed on many of the objectives before, only to fall considerably short. And the widespread skepticism about the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy among Democrats and some Republicans was underscored by the new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, in a television interview broadcast Sunday. She, along with the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, informed the president that they were opposed to increasing troop levels.

“If the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it,” Mrs. Pelosi said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “And this is new for him because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank check with no oversight, no standards, no conditions.” She also suggested that Congress should deal with financing for the current war and for the proposed increase as separate issues. “If the president chooses to escalate the war, in his budget request we want to see a distinction between what is there to support the troops who are there now,” she said.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/world/middleeast/08strategy.html?hp&ex=1168232400&en=cd581475fefa1a98&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[aquart]

1. Oh, look: "two or three years."

In other words, Bush will keep killing Americans and Iraqis and the next president gets to be the loser who pulls us out because we failed.

What a POS he is.

[saigon68]

7. POS= Piece of Shit

[struggle4progress]

2. Bush to offer $1bn in aid and 20,000 troops to Iraq

By Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor
Published: 08 January 2007

... The plan also puts Mr Bush on a collision course with the leaders of the new Democratic Congress. The leadership told him by letter on Friday that the US needs to move instead to a phased withdrawal of American troops, to begin in the next four months ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2134878.ece

[struggle4progress]

3. Brown plans 'independent' foreign policy (Independent / UK)

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Published: 08 January 2007

Gordon Brown signalled yesterday that as Prime Minister he would forge a foreign policy independent of the US and initiate "frank" relations with President George Bush.

Mr Brown also acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, and he hinted at the need for "reviews into what happened". He added that the West needed a "hearts and minds" campaign like the cultural campaign against communism to win the war on terror ...

He pointed towards the withdrawal of at least part of Britain's armed presence in Iraq, insisting: "I believe it is true to say that by the end of the year, there may be thousands less in Iraq than there are now" ...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2134889.ece

[Drum]

4. And in the hand they don't want us to watch...

are the permanent military bases in Iraq, the oil contracts, and the infectious nature of US aggression.

:puke:

[LostinRed]

5. New US strategy to call for benchmarks for Iraqis

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. BushÂ’s new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to stabilize the country politically and economically, The New York Times reported on its website.

ADVERTISEMENT

Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the newspaper said these "benchmarks" will call for drawing more Sunnis into the political process, finalizing a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and easing the governmentÂ’s policy toward former Baath Party members.

Without saying what the specific penalties for failing to achieve the goals would be, US officials insisted that they intended to hold the Iraqis to a realistic timetable for action, the report said.

The Americans and Iraqis have agreed on many of the objectives before, only to fall far short, The New York Times pointed out.

Bush is expected to refer to the benchmarks in a much-anticipated speech this week outlining his new Iraq strategy, including plans to send as many as 20,000 additional troops, according to the report.

Administration officials plan to make the benchmarks public sometime after the address, the paper said.

"This is not an open-ended commitment," the newspaper quoted a senior administration official as saying. "We are putting real specific requirements and expectations on the Iraqi government."

Some of the goals that are to be incorporated on the list of benchmarks have been carried over from an earlier list that was hammered out with the Iraqis, made public in October, but never met, the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070108/wl_afp/usiraqbushpolitics

Isn't this a timeline? WTF?

[murielm99]

6. They just don't want to call it

a timeline.

They probably stayed up nights trying to figure out a way to have a timeline without calling it that.

[cyberpj]

8. Anyone else remember this cartoon from some time ago? "Benchmarks" was already used:

Looks like the cartoon date is 10/25/06: