From The Washington Post, 11/29/05:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com

Tuesday, November 29, 2005; 12:42 PM

Progress in Iraq


In his speech tomorrow, Bush is expected to focus on the progress
being made by Iraq security forces.

It's a shame he's not taking questions.

Because here are a few recent stories that make you wonder what he
means by progress.

Yochi J. Dreazen, Greg Jaffe and John D. McKinnon write in the Wall
Street Journal (subscription required):

"President Bush, in an address at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis,
Md., Wednesday is expected to emphasize progress in training Iraqi
troops. But the administration's endorsement comes as Iraqi forces
increasingly are operating as sectarian militias, targeting Sunnis on
behalf of their Shiite political patrons and raising the possibility
of all-out civil war."

The Journal quotes Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at London's
International Institute for Strategic Studies as saying:

"It's increasingly becoming a war of all against all, with no rules. .
. . The Iraqi security forces themselves are becoming just another of
the players, and if they owe allegiance to anything, it's to their
commanders or communities, and not remotely to the state itself."

Dexter Filkins writes in the New York Times:

"As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security
services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has
begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out
executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods."

Solomon Moore writes in the Los Angeles Times:

"Shiite Muslim militia members have infiltrated Iraq's police force
and are carrying out sectarian killings under the color of law,
according to documents and scores of interviews."

Peter Beaumont writes in the Observer:

"Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam
Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to
the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

" 'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad
Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are
remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we
fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.' "

And Ellen Knickmeyer writes in The Washington Post that a prominent
Shiite leader wants even more leeway, rather than less:

"The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the
United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role
against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the
insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough."

__________________________________________________________

progress

Main Entry: 2pro·gress
Pronunciation: pr&-'gres
Function: intransitive verb

1 : to move forward

2 : to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage


I can't seem to get the Merriam-Webster definition to match the Bush
definition. You try it.

Harry