A bleak portrait of the political and security situation in Iraq released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office sparked sharp protests from top U.S. military officials in Baghdad.
Last-minute changes were made in the final draft of the report after the Defense Department maintained its conclusions were too harsh and insisted some of the information it contained, such as the extent of a fall in the number of Iraqi army units capable of operating without U.S. assistance, should not appear in the final, unclassified version.
The GAO rejected several changes proposed by the Pentagon and concluded Iraq had failed to meet all but two of nine security goals Congress had set as benchmarks. However, grades for two of the seven unmet security benchmarks — the elimination of havens for militia forces and the deployment of three Iraqi army brigades to assist the U.S. security plan in Baghdad — were recast to reflect partial progress. Two other benchmarks, one political and one economic, were also described as “partially met.”
The report said that only one of eight political goals — safeguarding minority rights in the parliament — had been met. It found little movement on key legislation, including measures to clarify the distribution of oil revenue or change de-Baathification laws.
Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the GAO, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that “the least progress has been made on the political front.” Fifteen of 37 Cabinet ministers have “withdrawn support” for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and serious problems remain in other ministries, Walker said. “Given the fact that significant progress has not been made in improving the living conditions of the Iraqis on a day-to-day basis with regard to things that all citizens care about — safe streets, clean water, reliable electricity, a variety of other basic things — I think you’d have to say … the government is dysfunctional.”
The GAO concluded that all forms of violence remain high in Iraq — causing senior military officials to complain that the report did consider statistics for the month of August, when they said trends in sectarian violence and the performance of the Iraqi security forces improved.
Democratic leaders jumped on the GAO’s conclusions to bolster their calls for a new strategy in Iraq, while Republican leaders dismissed the report.
“Today’s GAO report confirms that the president’s Iraq strategy is simply not working,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Pentagon officials told Republican leaders that the GAO relied on outdated information. Because the agency was told simply to assess whether the benchmarks had or had not been met, the GAO was set up to deliver a negative report, Blunt said.