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WOLF BLITZER: Right now
there is serious concern Iraq is not seeing the kind
of progress Americans desperately hope for. We're
learning about a draft of a government audit that
grades how well things are going. According to both
"The Washington Post" and The Associated Press, the
report concludes Iraq is failing to make positive
advances on almost all of the measures of political
and security progress.
Joining us now our correspondent in Baghdad, Michael
Ware -- Michael, you've seen all the reports of this
draft Government Accountability Report Office study
which is going to suggest presumably that, what, 15
of the 18 so-called benchmarks are not -- have not
yet been met. I don't know why people should be all
that surprised given all the gloomy reporting that's
coming from Iraq.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Wolf. I
mean, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to
feel like Bill Murray halfway through the movie
"Groundhog Day." I mean we've already seen a slew of
these pessimistic and, to be honest, increasingly
frank and realistic assessments of the situation on
the ground. And we've still got another two and a
half weeks of more reports to come.
I mean, surely the American public must slowly
becoming aware at last that the mission here in Iraq
is not working out anything like it was ever planned
to. And it's not going to get better any time soon.
Yes, there are some successes on the security side.
But like everything, Wolf, they don't come without
cost and we've discussed that many times.
And, honestly, on the political front, it's beyond
dropping the ball. They have dropped it, lost it,
it's gone into the bushes and they don't know where
it is. It ain't coming back. So this tells us really
nothing new. It's just slightly more pessimistic and
realistic than what we've heard before and we've
still got more to come.
BLITZER: Michael, what about next? What happens next?
We're going to get all these reports coming in. As
far as the day-to-day situation, I take it you don't
see any significant change.
WARE: Well, this is the question one -- well, America
has to ask itself: is it ready to perform the radical
surgery that is necessary here in Iraq? Now, that's
going to be on all number of fronts. But bottom line
is, the Maliki government isn't working. I think by
and large, that there's a consensus of opinion on
that. So the question is what comes next?
What comes next, Wolf, is going to be ugly, one way
or another. Essentially, America has to choose
between the least bad of a host of terrible
scenarios. So is America ready to do what is going to
be required to reclaim some kind of preservation of
U.S. interests and avoid complete and outright
perception of defeat here in Iraq?
BLITZER: We'll continue this conversation, Michael,
in the days to come. Thanks very much.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.