Little Progress Seen on Iraq Goals

Ah, will Petraeus agree with this assessment? Don't bet on it.

Congressional auditors have determined that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to assess President Bush's Iraq war strategy, The Associated Press has learned.

The Government Accountability Office, or GAO [as always, ya gotta love 'em], will report that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks to measure the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq are unfulfilled ahead of a Sept. 15 deadline for Bush to give a detailed accounting of the situation eight months after he announced the policy, according to three officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not been made public, also said the administration is preparing a case to play down its findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, "all or nothing" standards when compiling the document. [emphasis mine]

All or nothing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that how "goals" are supposed to work? If your goal is to run the Boston Marathon, isn't stopping in the middle failure? Yeah, I thought so.

Via Guardian.