Promises, Promises
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonopost.com
Thursday, January 10, 2008; 1:30 PM
On the one-year anniversary of President Bush's announcement of a troop surge in Iraq, it's worth looking back to see what he promised the American people would happen.
Here's the text of his speech. Recall that, at the time, the debate in Washington finally appeared to be shifting away from how to achieve victory and toward how to cut our losses. Instead, Bush announced he was sending 30,000 more troops into the fray.
"
ver time," Bush said, "we can expect to see Iraqi troops chasing down murderers, fewer brazen acts of terror, and growing trust and cooperation from Baghdad's residents. When this happens, daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas. Most of Iraq's Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace -- and reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible. . . .
"To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution."
And lest anyone think that Bush didn't take these Iraqi promises seriously, he vowed that "America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced."
A year later, security has undeniably improved greatly -- although some experts suggest that the relative calm is due in part to all the ethnic cleansing that has already taken place. But all that promised political reconciliation? There are no signs of it whatsoever.
A year later, rather than admit the surge has failed in its primary task, Bush is calling it a success. And rather than hold the Iraqi government accountable -- say, by threatening to withdraw or pull back U.S. troops -- administration officials have come up with yet another plan that might work, might not, but either way buys time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/10/BL2008011002194_pf.html
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