By DPA
Washington : A much-awaited interim report on progress in Iraq released Thursday finds that nearly half of the benchmarks laid out by the US Congress for the Iraqi government have seen forward movement, but little progress has been made toward political reconciliation.
President George W. Bush said the report was a “cause for optimism”, and that political progress in bringing Iraqi factions together would follow from the improved security situation in the region.
The Iraqi update – required by lawmakers and billed as a mid-way report before a September deadline for another report Congress asked for – has taken on more political significance as the US Senate debates another attempt to bring an early end to the war by cutting funding.
Bush acknowledged that people were “tired of the war” in Iraq, but insisted the war was winnable and pleaded for more time to allow an additional 20,000 troops sent to Iraq to have an impact.
“There’s war fatigue in America. It’s affecting our psychology,” Bush said at a press conference at the White House. “I believe we can succeed, and I believe we are making security progress that will enable the political track to succeed as well.”
Congress is trying to hold the White House to certain benchmarks since the so-called troop “surge” came to full force last month. Democrats are leading the debate, but several key Republicans have defected from support of Bush’s conduct of the war.
Bush warned he would continue to veto any effort by Congress to impose a deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
“I don’t think Congress ought to be running the war,” Bush said. “I’m certainly interested in their opinion.”
In describing the report, Bush said satisfactory progress had been made in eight areas but the Iraqis had “much more work to do” in another eight areas. Another two of the 18 standards produced mixed results, the report said.
The written version of the report gives the Iraqis satisfactory marks in nine benchmarks, including strong forward movement in bringing Iraqi security forces up to performance, denying terrorists a safe haven in the capital and investing in reconstruction and services.
The Iraqi government, however, has produced unsatisfactory results in the area of political benchmarks, including political reconciliation to ease sectarian tension, the passage of an oil revenue-sharing law for Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups and making sure Iraq’s political authorities do not undermine or make accusations against members of the Iraqi Security Forces.
Bush said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates would travel to the Middle East in early August to underscore that the region “remains a strategic priority for the US”.
Senior intelligence officials gave a less upbeat report on Iraq to a House of Representatives panel on armed services Wednesday. Thomas Fingar, chief of the National Intelligence Council, said provision of essential services in Iraq remained lower than before the war, and that communal violence continued to split Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.