Iraq War supporters, opponents disagree on GAO report
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the leaked draft of a Governmental Accountability Office progress report on Iraq concludes that "Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks."-snip
Keith Olbermann also discussed the draft GAO report, on Thursday's Countdown, suggesting that President Bush is already seeking to water it down before its official release and that someone at GAO might have leaked the it to the Post out of fear it would be "neutered."
Olbermann further cited an internal White House memo, obtained by the Associated Press, which suggests the administration is preparing to downplay the meaningfulness of the Iraq benchmarks. He pointed out, however, that President Bush himself had called those benchmarks "a clear roadmap to help the Iraqis secure their country and strengthen their young democracy" when he agreed to them last May.
"Does that not make it difficult for the White House to argue now that this GAO report will not present a true picture of the situation in Iraq?" Olbermann asked MSNBC analyst General Wesley Clark
"Exactly right," replied Clark. "They should not be able to squirm out from underneath these standards. ... The American people are making a judgment every day as they see the results of the war. The benchmarks confirm that judgment, and this is a huge problem for the White House."
Clark concluded by calling on the administration to come up with a political and diplomatic strategy for the region and "stop hiding behind General Petraeus."
