Hope Over History--measuring progress WH syle.

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/politics/01medicare.html?ei=5094&en=f7b65fe8d96d404b&hp=&ex=1133499600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

Hope Over History

By Richard Cohen
Thursday, December 1, 2005; A25

If, as Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill once said, all politics is local, I direct your attention from President Bush's speech on Iraq yesterday to the District of Columbia and its police department. Back in 1989 and 1990, the city of Washington was under orders from Congress to quickly hire 1,800 police officers or lose a substantial amount of federal aid. The city did what it was told -- and crime on the police force went way up.

Within four years, the police academy classes of 1989 and 1990 comprised about one-third of the police force. They also accounted for a disproportionate share of rotten, corrupt and downright criminal cops. Astoundingly, Washington had 185 police officers of such dubious character or outright criminality that prosecutors would not put them on the stand as witnesses. In Washington, for a time, the term "crooked cop" amounted to a redundancy.

Washington's lamentable experience may soon be duplicated in Iraq. The results might be better, but nothing about human nature suggests any cause for optimism. Just as Washington hurried to sign up new cops -- cutting all sorts of corners (psychological testing, extensive background checks, etc.) -- so is the United States creating an Iraqi security force, and doing so on the double. These are the troops that constitute the entire exit strategy for America in Iraq. As these forces get better and bigger, U.S. troop levels can be drawn down. Such, as Bush made plain in his speech at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, is the plan.

To hear the president tell it, the plan is working splendidly. Should you be so inclined, you can measure progress by going to a government Web site ( http://www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil/ ) and seeing for yourself. Everything is going swimmingly. "Mechanized Division puts T-72s, BMPs on parade" is one headline. It tells the tale of one November day when the tanks and armored personnel carriers were turned over to the Iraqi army's 9th Division, with "all the pomp and circumstance befitting the largest NATO-driven equipment donation to date."
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[kurth]

1. Errh... HOPE Is Not A Plan

[Demit]

2. your link leads to another story--

"Agency Uncovers Problems in Drug Discount Program"