Iraq Progress Report

Thanks to a tip from The Griper, I managed to track down the full report. You can see it for yourself here at the DefenseLink website.

My initial response is that of the three scales that the war is measured on (security, political, and economic) that progress has been made in all areas, though to a lesser degree in the security track as a result of sectarian violence.

Progress along the political and economic were encouraging, but they could have done better were it not for sectarian violence. What's notable about this is that sectarian violence is nothing new to most people, you've heard about it in the news ad nauseam. What you don't hear about is the progress that's being made in spite of this violence.

Here's a short summary:
Here you can see the progress we've made along the political track.


In the last report, there were three provinces in the green and one in the red.

This progress in spite of sectarian violence.

Here you can see that most violence is limited to 4 provinces. The size of the province as depicted here represents population size.

Here you see the status of each province to be transferred back to Iraqi control. Dhi Qar, north of Muthana, the one province that has already been transferred, will be transferred back to Iraqi control shortly ... in spite of sectarian violence.

I'd encourage everyone to read the report for yourself. It's 66 pages, but it will give you a better idea for how we're really doing over here.