Bush, benchmarks and badgers

The NSC interim report on the new way forward in Iraq , the surge, the war that ended four years and two months ago and what have you was released today (25 pages PDF), and the President held a speech on Iraq(full transcript). Who could have foreseen that this news would be overshadowed by an army of ugly big fellows that seems to terrorize Basra these days.. And surprise surprise, it´s not the Mahdi Army!

On a whole a hellish period for the administration with important Republican senators like Richard Lugar et al leaving the sinking ship. The House of Representatives voting for troop withdrawal by April 2008, more American soldiers killed and several major car bombs during the last week, not much to be happy about.....

But there was actually a good piece of news, the amount of Iraqi casualties has been going down, and if that´s a continuing trend, then that might actually be the best news yet.....

I´m tired and on my way to bed, just wanted to post the interim report and the speech, and then you can judge for yourself.