Iraq Progress: Ruh-roh

While sifting through today's Daily Muck, I found a couple of interesting items.

The first involves a Bush DOD nominee who is clearly not long for this world when she flies out of the gate giving Iraq an F grade on their benchmarks:

"At this time, I would give the Maliki government an 'F'," Mary Beth Long told the Senate Armed Services Committee during her confirmation hearing today. The nascent government has not performed in an "exemplary manner" to pass needed legislation, Long said. [...] She acknowledged the Iraqi government has not yet succeeded in passing de-Baathification legislation or approving hydrocarbon laws including an oil revenue sharing agreement, among other legislative goals.

Unfortunately, Mary did not receive the memo with her nomination which clearly states that as a Bush appointee, she needs to agree with everything Bush does and see nothing but progress and good vibes in Iraq. Once the next administration takes over, then she would be allowed to harp on the lack of progress in Iraq and blame it all on the new boss. (Whoops! Didn't mean to uncover the super secret wingnut strategy!)

While we're on the topic, let's take a look at a recent Pentagon report about how other things are going:

Despite a significant reduction in violence in Iraq over the past three months, the Iraqi government has made little headway in improving the delivery of electricity, health care and other essential services, a new Pentagon report said Tuesday.

The current health care center status should give you an idea as to the problems being faced:

The United States has built 85 of 142 planned health care centers, many of which have been turned over to the Ministry of Health, which has been dominated in recent years by followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric. The report noted, however, that some of the medical centers have not been opened “due to a shortage of trained medical staff” and a “sectarian agenda” within the Health Ministry that has led to the discrimination against Sunni areas.

The funny part is that the administration and their ilk would still have you believe that this whole Iraq experiment is a cakewalk that will be resolved before, or after, the next administration steps in.

And Iran will be just as easy.