WASHINGTON -- How can we really determine if the Iraq mission is going well? Pessimists worry about recent truck bombings and political assassinations, ongoing serious crime problems, sustained attacks against U.S. forces, and high unemployment together with slow progress at improving the Iraqi standard of living.
Optimists point to the progress in killing or arresting top Ba'athists, creation of municipal councils and national ruling bodies, gradual progress in building up Iraqi security forces, reopening of schools, and general sense of calm in most of the country -- if not yet in the so-called Sunni triangle.
In fact, all of these indicators are important, meaning that the message from Iraq today is mixed. And because assessing progress in any counterinsurgency is inherently a complex and largely political enterprise, they must all be taken into account. To convince a skeptical public about progress in Iraq, the Bush administration would do well to provide more systematic information on all of these and other measurable metrics routinely -- even when certain trends do not support the story it wants to sell.
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