Word: iraq
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...state of the Iraq war, as it lurches into its sixth hot summer, is in the eye of the beholder. That much is clear from the release this week of a pair of U.S. government reports that offer dueling assessments of the situation in Iraq - a glass-half-empty version from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a glass-half-full account from (surprise!) the Pentagon...
...Both reports acknowledge that the slow and uneven political progress in Iraq remains fragile and could jeopardize the prospects for long-term success. But the Pentagon study cites a slew of indicators suggesting that things are moving in the right direction. The GAO counters by saying, in effect, that the Pentagon's assessment is little more than a house of cards built upon the shifting sands of Iraq's internal political conflicts. Even a house of cards, the GAO implies, can appear stable in a snapshot...
...warring reports coincide with the onset of a presidential election season in which the way forward in Iraq will be a central point of contention. It's a sure bet that G.O.P. presumptive nominee Senator John McCain will wield the Pentagon's 66-page report as a bludgeon against those asserting the war has stalled and that U.S. troops should be withdrawn. Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic contender, will just as certainly use the GAO report as a stiletto to puncture the Administration's - and McCain's - contention that the troop "surge" is bringing victory in Iraq closer...
...surge, a creaky cease-fire declared by Shi'ite militias loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and a U.S.-led effort to hire former insurgents to guard their neighborhoods - hardly a platform for sustainable political and social reform. Indeed, the GAO accuses the Pentagon of cherry-picking the information from Iraq that substantiates the claim of progress and ignoring more unpalatable indicators...
...There's not a single religious or political utterance in the entire monologue, which may explain why it has not been posted on the usual jihadi websites. There's only one passing reference to U.S. presence in Iraq. "When the Americans first came to the village," Hasna says, "my brother made a sketch of their Hummers and gave it to their commander. He was very impressed by how quickly Thamer was able to make such an accurate drawing...