In the past 12 months, since the White House released its first formal assessment of Iraq's military and political progress, Baghdad politicians have reached several agreements seen as critical to easing sectarian tensions.
They have, for example, passed legislation that grants amnesty for some prisoners and allows former members of Saddam Hussein's political party to recover lost jobs or pensions. They also determined that provincial elections would be held by Oct. 1.
But for every small step forward, Iraq has several more giant steps to take before victory can be declared on any one issue.
Amnesty requests are backlogged, and there are questions about whether the new law will speed the release of those in US custody. It also remains unclear just how many former Ba'ath members will be able to return to their jobs. And while Oct. 1 had been identified as an election day, Baghdad officials have not agreed on the rules, possibly delaying the event by several weeks.
Militias and sectarian interests among Iraq's leaders still play a central role in the conflict. And US military officials say they are unsure violence levels will stay down as troop levels return to 142,000 after a major buildup last year.
In the May progress report, one benchmark was deemed to have brought mixed results. The Iraqi Army has made satisfactory progress on the goal of fairly enforcing the law, while the nation's police force remains plagued by sectarianism, according to the administration assessment.
Overall, militia control has declined and Baghdad's security forces have demonstrated their "willingness and effectiveness to use these authorities to pursue extremists in all provinces, regardless of population or extremist demographics," as illustrated by recent operations, the White House concludes.
Representative Mike McIntyre, a North Carolina Democrat who requested the administration's updated assessment, scoffed at the May report, which he says uses the false standard of determining whether progress on a goal is "satisfactory" vs. whether the benchmark has been met. He estimates that only a few of the 18 benchmarks have been fully achieved.
Democrats also say more solid progress could have been made had the administration starting pulling troops out sooner.
"We've tried repeatedly to get the administration to shift responsibility to the Iraqi leaders for their own future, since there is broad consensus that there is no military solution and only a political settlement among the Iraqis can end the conflict," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The administration, however, has repeatedly missed opportunities to shift this burden to the Iraqis and appears willing to do so again," Levin said.
