From Juan Cole this morning: A couple days ago Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) interviewed Joseph Christoff, Director, International Affairs and Trade, for the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Texas Democrat was trying to get Mr. Christoff to admit that the benchmarks Bush laid down for success of the “surge” in Iraq have still not been met. Mr. Christoff kept saying his report was not about benchmarks, but the questioning by Mr. Doggett ended up showing that there has been no progress on benchmarks. This five minute interview is what you might call “wonky” but it’s interesting nevertheless and shows that the so-called surge has not been a great success.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7H-VL6njuQ[/youtube]