3rd Quarter Bush Iraq Policy Report Card: D-/F

Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress give their third report card on the results of the Bush Iraq War policy, since the Senate voted to make 2006 a "year of transition" in Iraq. Time to check progress...

C-SPAN has the press conference* announcing the release of their report card:

• Security and Stability in Iraq: F
• U.S. National Security/Military Readiness: F**
• Progress of Democracy/Freedom in Iraq: D-
• Economic Reconstruction in Iraq: D-

(**To be fair, Stephen E. Flynn of the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations gave the Administration's Department of Homeland Security an overall C- (better than an F!) on the state of our national security; but we should consider that Flynn was grading our domestic preparedness [like port security (D+) and disaster response (C-)], not merely military readiness for foreign conflict, as Korb and Katulis.)

We know that the right wing will decry the Center for American Progress as a "liberal" organization (merely complaining, to be ignored, etc), but consider three things:

1. Lawrence Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, 1981-1985
2. Nothing Korb and Katulis say is in dispute by the Administration
3. Korb and Katulis have a plan to address the (unnecessary and strategically disastrous) mess Bush created in Iraq

$1000USD says the Korb/Katulis plan (v1.0 originally released September 30, 2005) will look remarkably similar to the Iraq Study Group plan* James Baker III put together for the Bush Administration -- conveniently to be released after the election on November 7, so as not to embarrass the Executive Branch prior to a national vote...

(*Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems.)