Washblog

You have to really WANT to find the text in this bill to see what the benchmarks are and what Bush is required to do by law.  I eventually found the pertinent language by going through the Library of Congress.  However, the links stop working minutes after posting them so you have to follow this incredibly ridiculous route to actually view it:

go here, click on HR2206, then click on "Text of Legislation", then click on the 6th choice, HR2206 EAH, then go down about 50 or so links to "Intelligence Community Management Account" and click on that.  You can then scroll down to Section 1314 to read the full list of benchmarks Congress "asked nicely" if Bush would observe.

Yeah, that's right, it's under Intelligence Community Management Account.  They BURIED this info where it's almost impossible to find.  But find it I did, Chapter 3, Section 1314, (a) through (e).

(a) is a list of findings that verge on finger pointing.  Very Invertebratingly Democratic.

(b) lists the benchmarks:

Sec. 1314.
(b) Conditioning of Future United States Strategy in Iraq on the Iraqi Government's Record of Performance on Its Benchmarks-

(1) IN GENERAL-

(A) The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks, as told to members of Congress by the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and reflected in the Iraqi Government's commitments to the United States, and to the international community, including:

(i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.

(ii) Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification.

(iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner.

(iv) Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semi-autonomous regions.

(v) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections.

(vi) Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty.

(vii) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that such security forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the Constitution of Iraq.

(viii) Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad Security Plan.

(ix) Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations.

(x) Providing Iraqi commanders with all authorities to execute this plan and to make tactical and operational decisions, in consultation with U.S commanders, without political intervention, to include the authority to pursue all extremists, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

(xi) Ensuring that the Iraqi Security Forces are providing even handed enforcement of the law.

(xii) Ensuring that, according to President Bush, Prime Minister Maliki said `the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation'.

(xiii) Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security.

(xiv) Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad.

(xv) Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently.

(xvi) Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.

(xvii) Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.

(xviii) Ensuring that Iraq's political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi Security Forces.

It then goes on to detail the kinds of reports Bush must file and sets a Sept. 15th deadline by which Bush must submit a second report and calls for testimony before Congress prior to that date.  

(c) is about limitations on availability of funds.  Your basic legalese ensuring that Bush spends the money where Congress said it should go.

And then we get to (d), the heart of the matter:

(d) Redeployment of U.S. Forces From Iraq- The President of the United States, in respecting the sovereign rights of the nation of Iraq, shall direct the orderly redeployment of elements of U.S. forces from Iraq, if the components of the Iraqi government, acting in strict accordance with their respective powers given by the Iraqi Constitution, reach a consensus as recited in a resolution, directing a redeployment of U.S. forces.

(e) is about the Comptroller General and establishes some form of fiduciary oversight.

I highlighted Section 1314 (d) but let me quote it again:

(d) Redeployment of U.S. Forces From Iraq- The President of the United States, in respecting the sovereign rights of the nation of Iraq, shall direct the orderly redeployment of elements of U.S. forces from Iraq, if the components of the Iraqi government, acting in strict accordance with their respective powers given by the Iraqi Constitution, reach a consensus as recited in a resolution, directing a redeployment of U.S. forces.

As has been diaried elsewhere, this has already happened.

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It's a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country's civil conflict, and at times it's been difficult to arrive at a quorum).

Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote. Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that's called for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes and what will happen next is unclear.

What is clear is that while the U.S. Congress dickers over timelines and benchmarks, Baghdad faces a major political showdown of its own. The major schism in Iraqi politics is not between Sunni and Shia or supporters of the Iraqi government and "anti-government forces," nor is it a clash of "moderates" against "radicals"; the defining battle for Iraq at the political level today is between nationalists trying to hold the Iraqi state together and separatists backed, so far, by the United States and Britain.

The continuing occupation of Iraq and the allocation of Iraq's resources -- especially its massive oil and natural gas deposits -- are the defining issues that now separate an increasingly restless bloc of nationalists in the Iraqi parliament from the administration of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government is dominated by Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish separatists.

By "separatists," we mean groups who oppose a unified Iraq with a strong central government; key figures like Maliki of the Dawa party, Shia leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakeem of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq ("SCIRI"), Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi of the Sunni Islamic Party, President Jalal Talabani -- a Kurd -- and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, favor partitioning Iraq into three autonomous regions with strong local governments and a weak central administration in Baghdad. (The partition plan is also favored by several congressional Democrats, notably Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.)

Iraq's separatists also oppose setting a timetable for ending the U.S. occupation, preferring the addition of more American troops to secure their regime. They favor privatizing Iraq's oil and gas and decentralizing petroleum operations and revenue distribution.

The list of "separatists" would have to include all but two Republicans and a shitload of Democrats In Name Only.  We can now add Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray to the list of Americans who would see Iraq's oil plundered by global corporatists.  

When, not if, Iraqs Parliament calls for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, will the American Separatists force Bush to comply with HR 2206?

Hell no, they've already gave him a means to ignore not only the will of the American people, but the sovereign rights of the Iraqi people as well:

(2) WAIVER AUTHORITY- The President may waive the requirements of this section if he submits to Congress a written certification setting forth a detailed justification for the waiver, which shall include a detailed report describing the actions being taken by the United States to bring the Iraqi government into compliance with the benchmarks set forth in subsection (b)(1)(A). The certification shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.

So even if the Iraqi's demand our immediate withdrawal from Iraq - which will NOT be reported in the corporate media - Bush can merely ignore them by sending Congress a written certification detaling his "justifications" for remaining in Iraq.

What we need are REAL Democrats.  Let's start right here in Washington State by vowing to replace Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell at the first opportunity.  We need to recruit their replacements ASAP because as we all know, the Democratic Apparatik will make sure that their incumbents will not be challenged.  The Good Ole Boy system will defend itself forcefully.

It's not Democrats vs Republicans anymore. It's global corporate oligarchy vs All of us.  Even the Iraqis.