Via Progress Report. Two items today in the continuing chronicle -  The Greatest Strategic Disaster: The War Fought With Slogans

Operation "Forward Together" was planned months in advance, announced months in advance to coincide with the formation of that other spun concoction - the National Unity Government

PLAN TO INCREASE BAGHDAD SECURITY HAS INSTEAD FUELED TENSIONS: Among the main topics Rumsfeld said he wanted to discuss on his trip was security in Baghdad, where the three-day death toll has risen well above 100. Yesterday, "about 200 yards outside civilian entrances to the heavily guarded Green Zone government compound in Baghdad, two suicide bombers blew themselves up, followed shortly by an explosion of another bomb, killing 15 civilians and an Iraqi police officer and wounding four other people." Abdul Rahman, a local Baghdad merchant, said, "The scene was terrifying and tragic. ... After I saw this terrible incident, I closed my shop and I went home." There have been many horrifying scenes in recent days around the Iraqi capital, including an account by CNN's Nic Robertson that "a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog's head sewn on her body in its place; and of a young child who had had his hands drilled and bolted together before being killed." Coinciding with Bush's surprise visit to Iraq in mid-June, Maliki announced Operation Forward Together, a plan to specifically improve security conditions in Baghdad. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell acknowledged recently that the crackdown has been ineffective. Ambassador Khalilzad said it had not "performed to the level that was expected." And Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman simply stated, "The security plan did not succeed." Baghdad has instead bore witness to the increasing brazenness of the attackers. "This is a new step. A red line has been crossed," said Alaa Makky, a Sunni member of parliament. "People have been killed in the streets; now they are killed inside their homes."

The National Strategy for Victory in Iraq was released to coincide with the Iraqi Winter Election hype.  You'd think that some national security expert would have been responsible for such a "seminal" document as this.  You'd be wrong.  The NSVI was the work of a team headed by newly appointed NSC member James Feaver, a Duke political scientist whose speciality is US public support for wars. He caught Bush's eye with a questionable hypothesis - forget whether you are winning, facts on the ground mean nothing just speak about victory and success as much as possible

Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released yesterday asserts that the Bush administration's National Strategy for Victory In Iraq "is inadequate and was poorly planned, backing up some politicians' charges that a prolonged stay in the country is only fueling sectarian violence." The GAO report recommends that the National Security Council outline a comprehensive strategy for Iraq with "milestones" and "metrics" so Congress can assess the progress and the problems on the ground. "We still don't know how long we're going to be there," GAO chief David Walker said. While in Baghdad, Rumsfeld refused to entertain a possible drawdown. "We haven't gotten to that point," he said.