Benchmarks: Then And Now

by hilzoy

The President's Address to the Nation, January 10, 2007:

"I've made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people -- and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act. The Prime Minister understands this. Here is what he told his people just last week: "The Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation." (...)

A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced."

Background Briefing by Senior Administration Officials, January 10, 2007:

"We have made very clear that the Iraqi government needs to meet the benchmarks it has set in order to do the things on which a broader reconciliation are required. And you all know them. They're the oil law; they're de-Baathification, narrowing the limitations of the de-Baathification law; they're provincial elections to bring the Sunnis back into the political process at the local level. There is also continuing, and we would hope even accelerating the transition of security responsibility to Iraqis elsewhere in the country and in Baghdad, because if this works it will actually enable Iraqis sooner to provide security in Baghdad. And we have -- would like, and the Iraqis have made clear that one of their benchmarks is to take responsibility for security in the whole country by the end of the year. (...)

They have set forward this plan. They have brought forward these benchmarks. And what the President is saying is, fine, we will judge you now less on your words and more on your performance."

Today, after news that the GAO will report that Iraq has failed to meet its benchmarks:

"An internal White House memorandum, prepared to respond to the GAO findings, says the report will claim the Iraqis have failed on at least 13 benchmarks. It also says the criteria lawmakers set for the report allow no room to report progress, only absolute success or failure.

The memo argues that the GAO will not present a "true picture" of the situation in Iraq because the standards were "designed to lock in failure," according to portions of the document read to the AP by an official who has seen it."

And:

"At the White House, officials argued that the GAO report, which was required by legislation President Bush signed last spring, was unrealistic because it assigned "pass or fail" grades to each benchmark, rather than assessing whether the Iraqis have made progress toward reaching the benchmark goals.

"A bar was set so high, that it was almost not to be able to be met," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said."

(Emphasis added in all quotes.)

Comments

[double-plus-ungood]

I'm thinking that there ought to be some benchmarks that Bush needs to meet.

Sheesh.

[Nell]

There you go again, dpu, setting an impossibly high bar!

[Pooh]

Hil,

OT, but is there any way you can tell one of your estimable co-bloggers at Sully's place to put a sock in it? One Martin Peretz is plenty, though Mr. Kirchick appears to be auditioning for th understudy roll.

[BigHank53]

Funny, they didn't seem to mind setting an unreachable bar for schools in the No Child Left Behind legislation. Or for the states with the Real ID act. Or with requiring flattened Louisiana parishes to come up with 10% matching funds when they have no tax base left. Or with requiring Iraqis wishing to emigrate to get a personal recommendation from a US general.

[Model 62]

This rhetorical device -- juxtaposing a speaker's old quotes with his or her more recent quotes to show hypocrisy/duplicity, thereby pulling the ground from beneath the speaker's latest argument (in the way the roadrunner informs the coyote that the coyote has just overshot the cliff's edge, this style of blog post tips readers that a petard is laying on the ground, out of the speaker's own arsenal, which will soon hoist, in both cases, coyote and petard, collapsing and hoisting only becoming possible after an observer points out the discrepancy between real reality and coyote/petard reality) -- this device which was used to great effect by Billmon reminds me that I miss reading what Billmon has to say.

[kid bitzer]

no quagmire left behind.

[trilobite]

But, see, the children, the parishes, and the Iraqis are Not Republicans. It's Always Okay If You're A Republican.

Isn't that in the Constitution somewhere? If not, just wait a few more judicial nominations.

[Adam]

The quotes you cite, however, don't state that in January the Administration called for Iraq to meet those benchmarks by September. Indeed, in the first item you cite, President Bush makes reference to Iraqi officials' assurances that they would undertake certain actions by *November* in order to make progress toward meeting the benchmark.

And then, in the last two quotes, you highlight passages referring to "standards" -- but the "standards" refer not to benchmarks, but for the standard set by the GAO report -- i.e., to grade Iraq not according to progress toward the goals but, rather, according to whether or not they've met or not met the goals. That was made clear by the paragraph preceding your second Perino quote:

"At the White House, officials argued that the GAO report, which was required by legislation President Bush signed last spring, was unrealistic because it assigned 'pass or fail' grades to each benchmark, rather than assessing whether the Iraqis have made progress toward reaching the benchmark goals."

Weak effort. You're supposed to take Monday off, not today.

[hilzoy]

Pooh: see my latest post.

[Jeff]

Thread HijacK:

Support the Jena 6:

Who are the Jena Six?
The Jena Six are a group of black students who are being charged with
attempted murder for beating up a white student who was taunting them
with racial slurs, and continued to support other white students who
hung three nooses from the high schools "white tree" which sits in
the front yard.

http://jenasix.org/timeline.html>Jena 6 timeline

http://www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html>Online Petition: Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice

http://www.michaeldavidmurphy.com/jena/>Jena Six slide show

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whileseated/tags/jenasix/>More Photo's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoiZnr4jLY>Video

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/11397/1/141/>Complete Article

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-
white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white
prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a
trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student
who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students.

The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents
starting when whites responded to Black students sitting under
the "white tree" at their school by hanging three nooses from the
tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of
the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The Black
defendant, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the
other.

The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies — aggravated
battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a
16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested,
faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other Black youths await similar
trials on attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy charges.

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and
financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have
been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund —
the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the
NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice.

I'm giving as much as I can, and cross-posting to Slactivist and Shakesville.