More on Iraqi Benchmarks...

We discussed this last week when parts of the draft were leaked, now NPR is reporting that it's been confirmed that 11 of its 18 benchmark goals were not reached by the Iraqi government.

GAO's findings paint a bleaker view of progress in Iraq than offered by Bush in July and comes at a critical time in the Iraq debate. So far, Republicans have stuck by Bush and staved off Democratic legislation ordering troops home. But many, who have grown uneasy about the unpopularity of the war, say they want to see substantial improvement in Iraq by September.

Given Senator Warner issuing the call for troops to be brought home, I predict absent some dramatic improvement in September more and more Republicans will also be calling for a withdrawl.