Benchmarking

Remember this gibberish from January, 2007? A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced. Or, maybe this one? They have set forward this plan. They have brought forward these benchmarks. And what the President is saying is, fine, we will judge you now less on your words and more on your performance. So, when we see, reported at multiple outlets, failure to meet the benchmarks, we would expect the administration to do something, right? An internal White House memorandum, prepared to respond to the GAO findings, says the report will claim the Iraqis have failed on at least 13 benchmarks. It also says the criteria lawmakers set for the report allow no room to report progress, only absolute success or failure. In an official statement, deputy press secretary Dana Perino said: A bar was set so high, that it was almost not to be able to be met So, I guess we don't "hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced", as Bush said in January that we would?