U.S. is giving Iraqi government more time to meet goals
By Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger
March 14, 2007
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration is allowing the Iraqi government more time to achieve political goals that were described as key benchmarks of the new American strategy in Iraq, in an acknowledgment that movement toward reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites remains a long way off.
A "notional political timeline" that the administration provided to Congress in January called for the four most significant objectives to be met by this month, but in interviews this week, administration officials said it could be the end of the year at the earliest before all of them are fulfilled.
The slower pace of progress puts the administration in a difficult position, given the growing congressional criticism of the new strategy, which includes an increase of more than 20,000 American troops. Congressional Democrats are seeking passage of legislation that would impose a timetable for withdrawal of American troops, and for evidence that political benchmarks are being met.
A House bill under consideration this week lists benchmarks for Iraqi political progress, and would require that President George W. Bush certify by July 1 that progress was being made toward them. The bill would basically give Bush and the Iraqi government an Oct. 1 deadline to meet the benchmarks.
Administration officials have never rescinded their earlier timeline, and indeed the Iraqi government had already missed most of the deadlines when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave Congress the notional timeline, which extended from September 2006 to March 2007.
But in interviews, Bush administration officials said that the House proposal was far too rigid.
"The arbitrary setting of deadlines is counterproductive," a senior administration official said Wednesday. "We need to see that they are progressing," the official said, adding that "we don't think rigid deadlines are appropriate."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/14/news/policy.phpWhat Bush wants is an open-ended, blank check to continue his occupation. His generals say 2006 was the most violent period in Iraq since 2003 . . .The report issued Wednesday says there were about 900 attacks per week during the last part of last year, and that while the majority of attacks targeted coalition forces, most of the casualties were among Iraqi civilians. The report says about 95 Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded every week during that period, along with about 30 members of the Iraqi security forces and 20 coalition troops.
And the report indicates that violence was even higher during January and the first part of February, which are not officially part of the reporting period. The report says the number of attacks rose to more than one thousand per week early this year, and Iraqi civilian casualties rose to 99 per week.
The quarterly report says most of the violence
continues to be concentrated in Baghdad and three nearby provinces, Diyala, al-Anbar and Salah al-Din.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-03-14-voa88.cfm?rss=middle
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