In Randy Kuhl's last Iraq press release, he said that he was waiting for "the results" on benchmarks on September 15. The waiting is over. Today, the White House released the latest benchmark report. According to the AP, the report contains only one minor change from the last report: there are more former members of the Ba'ath party who are being allowed back into government.
It's worth looking at this one benchmark in-depth. Here's the benchmark:
Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Ba’athification reform.
That seems pretty simple. Here's what the White House says:
The fact that legislation has not yet passed the COR [Council of Representatives, i.e. Iraqi Parliament] should not diminish the significance of the agreement reached by the leaders or the re-integration of former Ba’athists taking place on the ground.
The point of benchmarks is that they are objective measures of progress. The objective measure here is whether legislation has been passed and implemented. If the legislation had passed, then perhaps there could be a conversation about implementation. This law has been drafted but not passed. Any reasonable person reading this report has to conclude that the benchmark has not been met.
The GAO report issued earlier this week had three categories for benchmarks: "met", "partially met", "unmet". The GAO categorized the de-Ba'athification benchmark as "unmet".