The Skimmer

By MARK THOMPSON

Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq

By the U.S. Government Accountability Office; 89 pages

The mildly titled June 23 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a glass-half-empty study of the vexations that continue to hamper U.S. efforts in Iraq as the war enters its sixth summer. While the GAO doesn't contradict a Pentagon report that indicates violence in Iraq has dropped significantly, it claims the improvement is based on a rickety foundation provided by the now slowing U.S. troop surge, a creaky cease-fire with Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a U.S.-led effort to recruit former insurgents for policing--not on any sustained reforms needed for lasting peace. The GAO says that only 10% of Iraqi army battalions have reached operational readiness, a claim the Pentagon calls "misleading." The Pentagon also criticizes the GAO for relying on "outdated" infrastructure benchmarks that, it says, don't reflect recent progress. Nonetheless, the study is sure to be cited by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama to support his stance that the U.S. should begin withdrawing from Iraq--just as the Pentagon report will fuel the campaign of his rival, John McCain.

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