This story was buried on page A21 of the Washington Post yesterday:
A new assessment of U.S. policy in Iraq by the same experts who advised the original Iraq Study Group concludes that political progress is “so slow, halting and superficial” and political fragmentation “so pronounced” that the United States is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago.
The experts were reassembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace, which convened the congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group, a high-level panel that assessed U.S. policy in Iraq and offered recommendations in 2006. The new report predicts that lasting political development could take five to 10 years of “full, unconditional commitment” to Iraq, but also cautions that future progress may not be worth the “massive” human and financial costs to the United States.
So the last year has basically been a wash and we are still stuck in the never ending war, but the Washington Post thinks that’s not newsworthy enough? Amazing. Just because the media doesn’t want to cover the war anymore doesn’t mean it still isn’t going on. It doesn’t mean soldiers aren’t still dying. It’s just not as juicy as Rev. Wright or Hillary’s Bosnia trip.