Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

So many bastards, so little time.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Democrats are back in array!

A consequence of cucumbers

Let me file that under fuck it.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You are here: Home / Politics / The Most Important Aspect

The Most Important Aspect

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Of the pessimistic GAO draft report that was leaked today:

A GAO spokesman declined to comment on the report before it is released. The 69-page draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is still undergoing review at the Defense Department, which may ask that parts of it be classified or request changes in its conclusions. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, normally submits its draft reports to relevant agencies for comment but makes its own final judgments. The office has published more than 100 assessments of various aspects of the U.S. effort in Iraq since May 2003.

The person who provided the draft report to The Post said it was being conveyed from a government official who feared that its pessimistic conclusions would be watered down in the final version — as some officials have said happened with security judgments in this month’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. Congress requested the GAO report, along with an assessment of the Iraqi security forces by an independent commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, to provide a basis for comparison with the administration’s scorecard. The Jones report is also scheduled for delivery next week.

Clearly, the patriots need to find out who this leaker is and destroy him. To let him be would not only be out of character, but would send the wrong message. Only finessed, massaged reports should see the light of day, lest we lose the greatest struggle in human history. If only Gonzales had run the GAO, then we could have weeded out this cowardly anonymous government official who is clearly a holdover from the Clinton era and replaced him with a true believer.

Reader Interactions

14Comments

  1. 1.

    Punchy

    John, your first bolded sentence is simply mind-boggling. The GAO goes over, researches a ton ‘o shit over a myriad of issues systematically and logically. They initiate, plan, author, and finalize a reality-based report reflecting the analysis of a wealth of accumulated data.

    Then the DoD goes in, crosses out anything they dont like, and just fills in whatever they want it to say. Let me ask this: since the GAO is always prefaced with “independent”, why is the DoD (quite non-independent) allowed to change conclusions??

    Isn’t this like giving the worker the final say over a performance report, AFTER the boss has already written it? Soon that company has nothing but the most stupendous, outstanding, and (of course) highly paid employees! Look, the performance reports say so! Must be true!

    WTF?

  2. 2.

    dslak

    Fox News’ headline is:

    “GAO Report Finds Slow Progress in Iraq Surge.”

    Because if this report shows anything, it’s that we’re making progress in Iraq!

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    Damn….That didn’t take long…

    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.

    Factual corrections. Becuase the original GAO report was filled with lies and bullshit, and that just had to be fixed.

  4. 4.

    Jake

    I’m surprised its taken this long for someone to push back against the GAO. Their job is basically to embarrass the shit out of every other division of the government and there’s been plenty for them to do of late. Remember the DoD rummage sale fiasco?

    Judging from this story, they still don’t intend to fuck around.

  5. 5.

    Dreggas

    Punchy Says:

    John, your first bolded sentence is simply mind-boggling. The GAO goes over, researches a ton ‘o shit over a myriad of issues systematically and logically. They initiate, plan, author, and finalize a reality-based report reflecting the analysis of a wealth of accumulated data.

    Then the DoD goes in, crosses out anything they dont like, and just fills in whatever they want it to say. Let me ask this: since the GAO is always prefaced with “independent”, why is the DoD (quite non-independent) allowed to change conclusions??

    GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!

    Today an explosiong did NOT take place at a local GI hangout and there were NOT mass casualties….

    next question?

  9. 9.

    Doubter4444

    I did read however that the grading was met/not met and that getting 90% towards a goal to be met was thereby classified not met…. is that true? Because if so, it is a bit misleading…

  10. 10.

    whippoorwill

    The Bush administration watering down government report. Why i’m shocked.

    Why don’t they just issue A decree from His Majesty that says every damn thing is classified. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP!

  11. 11.

    Davis X. Machina

    Fox News’ headline is:

    “GAO Report Finds Slow Progress in Iraq Surge.”

    This is like the AAA announcing that in the new guidebook they’re giving Abu Graib only two diamonds.

  12. 12.

    CaseyL

    The original criterion for evaluation, as set forth by no less an authority than Bush himself, back in January, were that the Iraqi government needed to meet the goals, not – emphatically not – simply “make progress” towards the goals.

    And even if you move the goalposts so you can call “making progress” good enough, the GAO report notes that very little progress has been made on most of them.

    Let’s extrapolate, then, shall we? If, in 8 months, the goal achievement ratio is 3/13 – in other words, less than 25% achieved – then we’re looking at at least 24 months before all goals are met. And that assumes a straight line of progress: no political crises, no intensifying conflict, no further destabilization.

    How good are prospects for a continuously forward straight line of progress?

    Well, the civil war has spread to the north. The various insurgents and militia groups are moving out of ‘pacified’ areas to undermine progress in what had been pacified areas. Maliki’s government is on the verge of collapse, with rumors of coups being bandied about (and the man most likely to replace him is Allawi, who didn’t work out so well last time). Iraqis are still fleeing the country, creating a brain-and-brawn drain. Hospitals are still killing fields; ethic cleansing continues; and infrastructure restoration is still going nowhere.

    Does that sound like a hopeful scenario to you? It sure doesn’t to me. It sure doesn’t sound like a situation in which we can expect to have met all the goals set forth by Bush (never mind those set forth by the ISG) in 2+ years.

    Projecting the bill for our continued presence – 2+ years, at $3 billion per day – is $2.16 trillion.

    And I don’t even want to try projecting the US casualty rate. The military, BTW, is already stretched beyond the breaking point. We’re losing, not only recruits, but also the mid-level commanders. That means there’s going to be a dwindling class from which to promote senior commanders and generals. Which means that the overall quality of command will suffer.

    So, in 2+ years, we will have bankrupted ourselves even more than we already have, and will have completely broken the military.

    All that, and the additional Damocles Sword of Bush-Cheney deciding to extend the war to Iran.

    Does this sound like a formula for success to anyone?

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    To let him be would not only be out of character, but would send the wrong message.

    Don Bush is not pleased.

    The 101st Keyboard Kneebreakers must be deployed immediately.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. […] 2.) The reason for the surge, to provide time for a national political reconciliation, seems to have failed. The GAO report (the unvarnished one leaked to the press last week, at least) points to a widespread failure to achieve these goals. These were goals agreed to by the administration, and now the only course of action for the administration and supporters is to haggle with how we define progress. Inspires a great deal of confidence, doesn’t it? […]