White House pushes back on Iraq report by Delia Cruceru

There is a lot of pressure on the White House concerning the Iraq's little political progress, as the independent assessment concludes despite that U.S. was present with troops for restoration of peace. A senior administration official said Thursday that: "A draft report by the Government Accountability Office concluded Iraq has satisfied three of 18 benchmarks set by Congress and partially met two others." U.S. authorities are disappointed that Iraq has failed in providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations or to ensure that the security plan. Although many politicians pressure President Bush to stop the presence of American troops in Iraq, Bush sticks to his strategy, but Friday he will meet with the Joint Chiefs that will express deep concerns about the long term impact on the military of maintaining a heavy troop presence in Iraq in 2008 and beyond. "The real question that people have is: What's going on in Iraq? Are we making progress? Militarily, is the surge having an impact?" said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "The answer is yes. There's no question about it." Democrats as well as Republicans think that if Baghdad can't reach a lasting political settlement that will stop the violence over there, the presence of the troops is useless. "With the president continuing to stay the course in Iraq, Republicans will have to decide whether they will continue to vote with him or join Democrats and the vast majority of Americans who are demanding a new direction in Iraq and refocusing America's efforts on fighting the real threats of terrorism around the world," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq;_ylt=AoXCAMH.M2wT_PXUi2bXj4ys0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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