Move Them Goal Posts!

After the GAO issued its own report card on the benchmarks the White House unilaterally developed for progress in Baghdad and that report card found that the Iraqi government failed in 11 of the 18 categories, the administration simply did what it usually does: changed the benchmarks. An article in today's NY Times notes the movement of the goal posts:

With the Democratic-led Congress poised to measure progress in Iraq by focusing on the central government’s failure to perform, President Bush is proposing a new gauge, by focusing on new American alliances with the tribes and local groups that Washington once feared would tear the country apart.

That shift in emphasis was implicit in Mr. Bush’s decision to bypass Baghdad on his eight-hour trip to Iraq, stopping instead in Anbar Province, once the heart of an anti-American Sunni insurgency. By meeting with tribal leaders who just a year ago were considered the enemy, and who now are fighting Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a president who has unveiled four or five strategies for winning over Iraqis — depending on how one counts — may now be on the cusp of yet another. [Emphasis added]

This new attention to the provinces outside of Baghdad comes at a rather opportune moment for the Administration. Gen. Petraeus's report (which apparently will be written by the White House) is due within the next week or so and will probably contain a more glowing report of the effects of the surge than the GAO's report implies. Congress is back in session after the Summer Recess and the Democrats have promised to return with knives drawn and teeth showing over the war.

And then, of course, there is the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. What better way to mark that horrendous event than to point to the US alliance with tribal leaders fighting the dread Al Qaeda.

In other words, the war will continue. More troops will be lost and more Iraqi civilians will die. We'll just have a shiny new scorecard to play with.