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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Pentagon asks for changes in the GAO report

Notice that they're only asking for "revisions" of the negative items.
Stung by the bleak findings of a congressional audit of progress in Iraq, the Pentagon has asked that some of the negative assessments be revised, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that after reviewing a draft of the Government Accountability Office report — which has not yet been made public — policy officials "made some factual corrections" and "offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades" assigned by the GAO.....

"We have provided the GAO with information which we believe will lead them to conclude that a few of the benchmark grades should be upgraded from `not met' to `met,'" Morrell said. He declined to elaborate or to spell out which of the benchmark grades the Pentagon was disputing.
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posted by mikevotes at 11:01 AM

7 Comments:

  • Yes they should definitely mention the bribes paid to the tribes in Anbar.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:24 AM  

  • We've discussed this before, but the short term "accomplishments" in Anbar have almost no direct bearing on a political solution in Iraq.

    If anything it's clearing the field for the Iraqi Sunnis which will eventually manifest as a unified front against the Shia government.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:57 PM  

  • Right. I just think the American public has a right to know what's behind all this 'success' in Anbar. Not that most people give a damn. Also of course it will ultimately decide who gets Kirkuk.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:33 PM  

  • Right. Also, I think it's important to note that the Sunnis in Anbar who are cooperating are largely the tribal forces built on clan and economics that can be bribed, and not the Islamic Army leaders or political religious leaders who can't be bribed.

    That's a bit of an unwritten part of this strategy, to use this program to try and empower the tribal leadership to replace the current political leadership.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 4:17 PM  

  • I don't know who ultimately speaks for the Sunnis. I suppose it would have to be a Baathist....possibly a Tikriti. Bottom line...they won't cooperate unless they get Kirkuk.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:27 PM  

  • And neither will the Kurds....

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:55 PM  

  • The Kurds are cooperating. They think they've got Kirkuk in the bag.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:58 AM  

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