The General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released a report yesterday assessing the U.S. strategy in Iraq. You can read the abstract online, and download the full report in pdf format.
Their conclusion: it's a mess, and we're still following a plan based on assumptions that haven't been true for awhile: that security would be established, for instance, and that the international community and Iraq itself would pick up a bigger share of the costs.
They give the administration credit for clearly laying out the national interest and the goals. Where the administration falls short — as it has in so many other things — is execution.
I'm still reading through the main report. Some key findings, as far as I'm concerned:
1. Prior to fall 2005, our effort in Iraq lacked a clear, integrated strategy. Specifically:
(1) no unified strategic plan existed that effectively integrated U.S. government political, military, and economic efforts; (2) multiple plans in Iraq and Washington have resulted in competing priorities and funding levels not proportional to the needs of overall mission objectives; (3) focused leadership and clear roles are lacking among State, DOD, and other agencies in the field and in Washington, D.C.; and (4) a more realistic assessment of the capacity limitations of Iraqi central and local government is needed.
Those findings led to the creation of the current plan, which is the subject of the new report. The GAO calls the new plan, known loosely as the NSVI, an improvement but still flawed.
In all, the administration gets terrible marks on identifying costs (and how those costs will be met), risks (and how those risks will be addressed) and integration, as well as the data-gathering needed to determine if the plan is working.
The report also illustrates how unrealistic the administration's early assessments were. The number of troops deemed necessary to achieve security has grown from 162,000 in 2003 to 326,000 in 2005 — and still the insurgency remains, in the GAO's words, "strong and resilient."
Me, I'm stunned that we had not yet developed a coherent plan more than two years after invading Iraq. It seems like part and parcel of the whole Iraq adventure — a carefully planned invasion, followed by "and then we fix things." From Jay Garner to the CPA to the continued security problems, we appear to be trying to emulate the British and simply "muddle through."
Now we're three years in, and that's simply not good enough.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Not to distract from the article, but I do wonder what self-important bureaucrat decided to change the name of the General Accounting Office to the Government Accountability Office. I guess it happened about the same time they branched out from accounting - which they were good at - to trying to be everyone's watchdog, which they've done a pretty piss-poor job of overall.
Dave
2 - troll
yup - the gao is such a mess that we can ignore its message - damned busybodies
3 - MCH
"...to trying to be everyone's watchdog..."
Nalle, please examine YOUr statement carefully, and ask YOUrself if it reminds YOU of anyone YOU know...
4 - Bliffle
Kill the messenger.
5 - Dave Nalle
Sometimes you really DO make me laugh, MCH. Does the fog around your head stay in a tight cloud or envelop your entire body?
Dave
6 - MCH
Every once in awhile the fog burns off, and I look at clouds tightly from both sides...now...
...and like Chuck Yeager's body of work, I'm always pushing that envelop...
7 - Dave Nalle
Joni Mitchell...how, ummmm...trite.
Dave
8 - MCH
Yeah, well I still prefer my "moronic, dumbass, trite" self to your genious, know-it-all, overbearing perfection, Nalle.
Something about being without flaws has never appealed to me.
By the way, how's that cure for cancer coming?
9 - Dave Nalle
Perfection is the cross I have to bear. Thankfully my perfectness is limited only to certain very specific areas, which don't include oncological research despite your generous assumptions.
dave
10 - MCH
see...I can't even spell genius correctly...
11 - MCH
...Chris should ban me, post haste...
12 - MCH
...If I could, I'd divorce myself...
...and I'd take me for everything I could get...
13 - Dave Nalle
Then you'd be a double divorcee, what with your divorce from reality and all.
dave
14 - MCH
quadruple, Nalle...two ex's...and they don't live in Texas...
15 - chancelucky
I find GAO reports pretty respectable, for the most part they're objective, non-partisan, and reasonable.
I'm amazed that the media didn't manage to pay a little more attention to this one.