The surge is ... uhhhh, look! Squirrels!

Iraqis 'fail to hit key targets.' Unfortunately, they keep managing to hit our troops.

Government 'Accountability' Office auditors say Awol McStupid's Iraq goals are not being met in "strikingly negative" report:

The Iraqi government has failed to meet the vast majority of political and military goals laid out by lawmakers to save the war preznit's ass, congressional auditors have determined.

Last week's NIE report agrees:

The [NIE] draft provides a stark assessment of the effects of the current US-led surge! to secure Baghdad. While the Baghdad security plan was intended to reduce sectarian violence, U.S. agencies differ on whether such violence has been reduced. While there have been fewer attacks against U.S. forces, the number of attacks against Iraqi civilians remains unchanged, and the capabilities of Iraqi security forces have not improved.

"Overall," the report concludes, "key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds."

Maybe another $50 billion payoff will help.

Update: The Bush misadministration today rejected the "bleak report" by the GAO, saying it "set criteria for judging progress far too high." The criteria? "Any."

White House deputy spokesmoron Dana Perino took pains to differentiate the GAO survey from the president's own cherry-picked and fictionalized report, which he must provide to Congress by September 15.

"The president will decide whether or not the Iraqis are making significant progress towards achieving the benchmarks in Iraq," Perino told reporters.