IRAQ'S BENCHMARKS?
In January, 2007, President Bush stated “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.“
Bush stated that these were the benchmarks: the Iraqi government will take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November; Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis; Iraqis will hold provincial elections later this year; the government will reform de-Baathification laws; and Iraq will establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution.
However, Iraq has nearly failed to achieve any of these benchmarks, yet Bush will “stay the course,” sacrificing American soldiers and billions of dollars in an open-ended commitment.
Reversing himself yet once again, Bush claims that Iraq’s benchmarks are not that important and were never directly tied to the troop surge. Bush said America is going to stay in Iraq no matter what.
Bush, who recently compared the Iraq war to the Vietnam war, should learn that having benchmarks is insignificant unless you have consequences. Iraqis do not think there will be stern consequences if they fail to attain benchmarks and consequently are not motivated to accomplish results quickly. U.S.-imposed benchmarks set for the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War achieved little because no penalties resulted in failing to achieve them.
by Christian Gatsby
