Two here from AP and Washington Post:
NYT/AP: A Look at Bush's Assertions About Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 13, 2007
....BUSH SAID:
''Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working,'' Bush said, noting that just last year U.S. intelligence analysts had written off the Sunni area as ''lost to al-Qaida.''
FACT CHECK:
Early Thursday, the most prominent figure in a U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by a bomb planted near his home. The killing of a chief Anbar ally hours before Bush spoke showed the tenuous and changeable nature of success in Anbar and Iraq at large....
BUSH SAID:
Progress in Iraq, including improvement in the performance of the Iraqi army, led to Petraeus' recommendation that ''we have now reached the point where we can maintain our security gains with fewer American forces.'' Bush said there is still work to be done to improve the Iraqi national police.
FACT CHECK:
A new White House report on Iraq shows slim progress, moving just one more political and security goal into the satisfactory column. Efforts to let former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party rejoin the political process earned the upgrade, a senior administration official told The Associated Press....
BUSH SAID:
Bush noted that the government has not met its own legislative benchmarks, but he pointed to limited political progress among Iraq's national leaders. He said Iraq has passed a budget and is sharing oil wealth.
FACT CHECK:
The General Accountability Office reported last month that Iraq has only partially met a test involving reformation of its budget process, although the State Department, Pentagon and White House disputed the finding. Some proceeds from Iraq's vast oil and gas resources are being shared among regions, but the country lacks a national framework agreement for the distribution of oil revenues....
BUSH SAID:
''We thank the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq and the many others who are helping that young democracy.''
FACT CHECK:
There may well be 36 nations contributing to the cause, but the overwhelming majority of troops come from the United States. For example, Albania has 120 soldiers there and Bulgaria has 150 non-combat troops in Iraq. Bush visited both nations this summer as a thank you.
The United States has 168,000 troops in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Iraq-Fact-Check.html***
WP: FACT CHECK
THE PRESIDENT ASSERTED PROGRESS ON SECURITY AND POLITICAL ISSUES. RECENT REPORTS WEREN'T OFTEN SO UPBEAT.
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 14, 2007; Page A06
In his speech last night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words.
For instance, Bush asserted that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done," such as "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions." Yet his statement ignored the fact that U.S. officials have been frustrated that none of those actions have been enshrined into law -- and that reports from Baghdad this week indicated that a potential deal on sharing oil revenue is collapsing. In a radio address to the nation less than a month ago, the president himself complained that the Iraqi government was failing to address these issues....
Bush also asserted that Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, was once an al-Qaeda stronghold but that "today, Baqubah is cleared." But in a meeting with reporters on Aug. 27, the head of the State Department team in Diyala said the security situation was not stable, hampering access to food and energy, though he acknowledged that commerce was returning to Baqubah....
Bush also thanked "the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq." But the State Department's most recent weekly report on Iraq said there are 25 countries supplying 11,685 troops -- about 7 percent of the size of the U.S. forces.
At one point, the president cited a recent report by a commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones, saying that "the Iraqi army is becoming more capable, although there is still a great deal of work to be done to improve the national police." But the report said Iraq's army will be unable to take over internal security from U.S. forces in the next 12 to 18 months and "cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven." It also described the 25,000-member national police force as riddled with sectarianism and corruption, and it recommended that it be disbanded....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091302710.html?hpid=topnews
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