'Government Accountability Office Contradicts McCain, Concludes The Surge Has Failed'

Firedoglake post here.

While agreeing with the administration that violence [in Iraq] has decreased sharply, a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office concluded that many other goals Bush outlined a year and a half ago in the "New Way Forward" strategy remain unmet.

The report, after a bleak GAO assessment last summer, cited little improvement in the ability of the Iraqi security forces to act independently of the U.S. military, and noted that key legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament had not been implemented while other crucial laws had not been passed. The report also judged that key Iraqi ministries spent less of their allocated budgets last year than in previous years, and said that oil and electricity production had repeatedly not met U.S. targets.

Republicans love to preen themselves in their moral clarity -- how the world is black and white, right and wrong. But mention Iraq and they start desperately scrambling around for shades of gray.

It's pretty simple. The surge, as defined by Bush in January 2007, has either succeeded or failed. And it's clear it's failed. . . .