Last night, during a "tele-townhall" meeting between Florida voters and McCain, in which he was introduced by Sen Lieberman, McCain uttered that ridiculous statement. In another exchange between McCain and a participant...

Robin in Parkland, who described herself as a Democrat and former Hillary Clinton supporter, said she was worried about her sons, ages 10 and 12.

''What assurances do I have that my children will not be sent to war?'' she asked.

Responded McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam: ``I think we live in a dangerous world, and I have to give you some straight talk . . . I can't guarantee you I won't send anyone in harm's way, but I can tell you that I know war, I hate war, and it will be the last choice I will make.''

Sure McInsane that's why you're advocating for our continued occupation of Iraq for the next hundred years and singing; "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!"

However, Senator, the GAO seems to disagree with you...

The GAO report discusses progress in meeting key goals in The New Way Forward(the 'Surge'):

(1) Improve security conditions

(2) Develop capable Iraqi security forces

Help the Iraqi government to:

(3) Enact key legislation

(4) Spend capital budgets

(5) Provide essential services.

Now, as to the first, improving the security conditions:

Overall violence, as measured by enemy-initiated attacks, fell about 70 percent in Iraq, from about 180 attacks per day in June 2007 to about 50 attacks per day in February 2008.

Security gains have largely resulted from (1) the increase in U.S. combat forces, (2) the creation of nongovernmental security forces such as Sons of Iraq, and (3) the Mahdi Army's declaration of a cease fire.

Average daily attacks were at higher levels in March and April before declining in May 2008. The security environment remains volatile and dangerous.

Hmmm, the GAO acknowledges Sadr's cease fire as a major factor!

Moving along to the second aspect...

The number of trained Iraqi forces has increased from 323,000 in January 2007 to 478,000 in May 2008; many units are leading counterinsurgency operations. However, the Department of Defense reported in March 2008 that the number of Iraqi units capable of performing operations without U.S. assistance has remained at about 10 percent. Several factors have complicated the development of capable security forces, including the lack of a single unified force, sectarian and militia influences, and continued dependence on U.S. and coalition forces.

Fancy that! The numbers are up but they still need us to hold their hand. I find it interesting that the GAO also notes the Badr influence on the IA's ineffectiveness...

Getting to the GAO's Iraqi GZG performance evaluation, on enacting key legislation...

The Iraqi government has enacted key legislation to return some Ba'athists to government, give amnesty to detained Iraqis, and define provincial powers. However, it has not yet enacted other important legislation for sharing oil resources or holding provincial elections. Efforts to complete the constitutional review have also stalled. A goal of The New Way Forward was to facilitate the Iraqis' efforts to enact all key legislation by the end of 2007.

In other words, they failed... I disagree with the first premise that the GZG did enact key legislation on Re-Ba'athification, Amnesty and defining Provincial powers, they may have passed the legislastion, but, they certainly haven't enacted them... See this article, or this one, and this one!

Moving along to the Iraqi budget...

Between 2005 and 2007, Iraq spent only 24 percent of the $27 billion it budgeted for its own reconstruction efforts. More specifically, Iraq's central ministries, responsible for security and essential services, spent only 11 percent of their capital investment budgets in 2007--down from similarly low rates of 14 and 13 percent in the 2 prior years. Violence and sectarian strife, shortage of skilled labor, and weak procurement and budgeting systems have hampered Iraq's efforts to spend its capital budgets

Sounds like another dismal failure...

Now, last but not least, are they capable of delivering vital services to the Iraqi people...

The daily supply of electricity met only about half of demand in early May 2008. Conversely, State reports that U.S. goals for Iraq's water sector are close to being reached. The unstable security environment, corruption, and lack of technical capacity have contributed to the shortfalls.

Another abysmal failure... By the way, the State Department is dead wrong...
See here too...

What I really enjoyed from the report was the ass chewing they gave Shrub and Rummy...

The New Way Forward responded to failures in prior strategies that prematurely transferred security responsibilities to Iraqi forces or belatedly responded to growing sectarian violence... ...The Departments disagreed with our recommendation, stating that The New Way Forward strategy remains valid but the strategy shall be reviewed and refined as necessary. We reaffirm the need for an updated strategy given the important changes that have occurred in Iraq since January 2007. An updated strategy should build on recent gains, address unmet goals and objectives and articulate the U.S. strategy beyond July 2008.

Where is the 'updated' strategy? Hmmm...? *crickets*