No wonder the Bushfolk soiled their diapers over that leaked draft of the GAO report on progress in Iraq--the released report is pretty devastating

It is unclear whether sectarian violence in Iraq has decreased--a key security benchmark--since it is difficult to measure perpetrators’ intents, and various other measures of population security from different sources show differing trends. As displayed in figure 4 (see above), average daily attacks against civilians have remained unchanged from February to July 2007.
--from the GAO report Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq, released today

Say, you remember that Government Accountability Office (GAO) report of which the Washington Post got hold of a draft last week? The one that promised to be such bad news for the Bush regime, and--as we noted here--was apparently leaked because at least some insiders believed the Bush regime would manage to have the final report seriously watered down, the way the regime stifles every attempt to report objectively on its doings.

Well, the final report--Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq--was presented today, as promised, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Faiz at Think Progress had a summary up almost immediately, with a link to a pdf of the full report. While it would be fascinating to compare the final version with the leaked draft, the published report is pretty devastating. It bears the subtitle: "Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks."

Here is U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker (below) explaining the GAO's mandate from Congress:

I am pleased to appear today to discuss our report on whether or not the government of Iraq has met 18 benchmarks contained in the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007 (the Act). The Act requires GAO to report on the status of the achievement of these benchmarks. Consistent with GAO’s core values and our desire to be fair and balanced, we also considered and used a “partially met” rating for some benchmarks. In comparison, the Act requires the administration to report on whether satisfactory progress is being made toward meeting the benchmarks. The benchmarks cover Iraqi government actions needed to advance reconciliation within Iraqi society, improve the security of the Iraqi population, provide essential services to the population, and promote economic well-being.

Faiz's post includes a table from the report which tabulates the 18 benchmarks with their degree of "met"-ness and a succinct "status" report. I don't know if you've ever actually looked at the famous benchmarks. They range from the purely bureaucratic to the utopianly unattainable, but the one thing they have in common, emphatically including the three that the GAO has found to be "met" and the four found to be "partially met," is that they really don't seem to mean much of anything substantive at any implementation level likely to occur in the real world.

I thought you might like to take a look at the documented "successes." Here are the three benchmarks that the GAO report credits as "met":

8. Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committee in support of the Baghdad security plan.

status: Committees established.

14. Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods around Baghdad.

status: 32 of 34 stations established.

16. Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.

status: Legislators' rights protected; minority citizens' rights unprotected.

And here are the four benchmarks found to have been "partially met":

4. Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections.

status: Law enacted; implementation scheduled for 2008.

9. Providing three trained and ready brigades to support Baghdad operation.

status: Forces provided; some of limited effectiveness.

12. Ensuring that, according to President Bush, Prime Minister Maliki said "the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation."

status: Militia infiltration of some security forces enables some safe havens.

17. Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.

status: Funds allocated but unlikely to be fully spent.

What???

Overall, it looks to me like the reported "status" is likely to represent, not a work-in-progress, but as-good-as-it's-going-to-get. And this is the good news.

As early Think Progress commenter Raven noted:

Not a very good report card, is it?

The three (only three) benchmarks met are very telling in themselves.

Commitees, command posts, and the rights of legislators. Sounds like the neo-con dream.

Another Think Progress commenter, billjpa, struck even closer to the heart of the matter:

I repeat - SO WHAT! you post, maybe more sphere folks post, BUT the major media sources aren’t touching it.
It was released today-Right?
MSNBC - full day of political news - So far -1:10 PM - NOT A WORD!
Like I said – SO WHAT!

Perhaps billjpa was judging hastily, and the report will be splashed all over the damn place--headlining all the evening newscasts, for example.

Or then again, perhaps not.