Congress will receive an interim report about the benchmarks they set for Iraq a few months ago. There were 18 benchmarks. According to the President, the Iraqis have satisfactorily met eight of the 18 benchmarks. There will another report around September 15.

If you’re grading Iraq, they scored about 44 out of 100. You’re failing the class, Iraq. If you’re a teacher, you’re calling little Johnny into the office to tell him that he’s failing and he has until the end of the semester (September 15) to bring the grade up. If he continues this poor performance, the school (Iraq) will loose valuable funding and many of the teachers (soldiers) will go somewhere else to teach.

One thing to remember is the “surge” has only been fully engaged (fully staffed) for a couple of weeks. But, it is well past time for the government in Iraq to stand up and take over the security of the country. This is the one issue that is preventing the USA from completing their mission…and coming home.

As the President said, people will see this interim report in different ways depending on how they view the war. Let the political posturing begin anew. The politics of the war in Iraq does nothing for our troops.

The Western Word (TWW) feels that no matter what the September 15 report says, it will be time to start withdrawing troops. If Bush continues to stand his ground, I believe by that time Congress will have enough Republicans on their side to stop it. Remember, the elections of 2008 are approaching and it’s all about winning elections in Washington D.C.

People are tired of the war in Iraq. Americans have never liked long, drawn-out conflicts. Since they have been in the majority, the democrats have devoted most of their time in the House and Senate fighting against Bush and many Republicans who support the war effort. The democrats have accomplished very little else because of this.

Yes, we went into the war with bad intelligence. Yes, the war has not been fought correctly. Yes, the Iraqis have not stepped up to take care of their country.

Our troops have not been defeated as some would say. The war is not lost as other leaders have said. It seems to me that the one problem is that the Iraqis have failed to keep their end of the deal although they have been provided with the best training and enormous amounts of money and equipment. Over 3500 American’s lives have been sacrificed for them, but still it seems they still don’t have the desire to walk alone.

I believe the USA will always have some sort of presence in Iraq, but no where near the 150,000 troops we have there now.

One would think that the Iraqi government should see the writing on the wall. The United States of America has grown tired of the war. Iraq must stand up.