One, Two, Three. What Are We Fighting For?

Don't ask him, he don't give a damn. AP (08.30.07):

"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, congressional auditors have determined.

The Associated Press has learned the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, 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."

Little Progress Seen on Iraq Goals

The White House reaction? It's Congress' fault. "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 the findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, 'all or nothing' standards when compiling the document."

The GAO has a suggestion. Washington Post (08.30.07):

"While it makes no policy recommendations, the draft suggests that future administration assessments 'would be more useful' if they backed up their judgments with more details and 'provided data on broader measures of violence from all relevant U.S. agencies.'"

Report Finds Little Progress On Iraq Goals

On another note, war may be hell, but at least it's profitable. AP (08.29.07):

"The Army will examine as many as 18,000 contracts awarded over the past four years to support U.S. forces in Iraq to determine how many are tainted by waste, fraud and abuse, service officials said Wednesday.

Overall, the contracts are worth close to $3 billion and represent every transaction made between 2003 and 2007 by a contracting office in Kuwait, which the Army has identified as a significant trouble spot."

Army to Examine Iraq Contracts