Lee, you forgot to list the other benchmarks-

"To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws, and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's constitution."

None of which have been met.

I would ask any member of the fanatic right, Has the military portion of the surge worked? If the answer is yes, how do we evaluate it? Next, what are the benchmarks? Has Iraq met their benchmarks?

The benchmark I cited was the principal reason the Democrats backed off from the funding showdown last winter. Bush agreed to include that benchmark which would allow us an exit strategy but yet didn't set a "specific withdrawal timetable."

If he was an honest man, Bush would be addressing the current Congressional reluctance to continue funding by first acknowledging that he has not delivered on his promise to hold the Iraqis to the November deadline.

Bush saying "Ok -- we didn't meet that objective, so here's what I propose," would be the presidential thing to do, but no - this lying sack of crap wants to villianize the Democrats and play politics instead of addressing this glaring failure to deliver -- ignoring the promise he made to the American people.

NG LT said:

I would ask any member of the fanatic right, Has the military portion of the surge worked? If the answer is yes, how do we evaluate it? Next, what are the benchmarks? Has Iraq met their benchmarks?

We did that a year ago, attempted to agree on how to measure success, and arrived at the benchmarks as a compromise solution.

Since the White House is not even acknowledging their failures on the last set of benchmarks it's time for Congress to pull the purse strings to make the timetable happen.

There's no point in negotiating anymore -- it's a fruitless exercise with these people. They wont live up to their word.