General Petraeus presented his report to the members of Congress on Capitol Hill on September 11 and September 12, 2007. The President made his television speech to the nation on September 14, 2007. Both the military and the President tell us that the troop surge is working to provide security in Iraq. Both General Petraeus and the President want to start withdrawing troops to return to the pre surge level of 130,000 U.S soldiers in Iraq by next summer.

The problem for President George Bush is that he has lost all credibility on the issue of military strength necessary to secure the peace in Iraq. This is primarily due to the fact that the Government of Iraq is dysfunctional. The Administration's original war plan called for a U.S. troop presence in Iraq to be cut to 30,000 by the fall of 2003. That became wishful thinking. In 2005, the plan called for a significant troop reduction in 2007. Instead, more troops have been added to stabilize the country. The President wants to convince the American people that troops are being reduced due to progress in Iraq. However, he has to reduce the force because the military cannot sustain the current troop strength. The reduction of troops proposed by General Petraeus and the Administration takes us back to the 130,000 troop level which is where the military commitment was prior to the troop surge.

Of course, for George Bush, the large white elephant sitting in the room behind the President was the report the White House would release the next morning. The September report that covers the assessment of the Iraqi government's performance in a number of areas, including political, economic, and security matters. In July, the Iraqis were deemed to be making satisfactory progress in 8 of 18 areas covered by the metrics. The latest report says they're making satisfactory progress in one additional area, bringing the total to 9 of 18 benchmarks. As gloomy as the White House report was, it was still optimistic compared to a separate report released on Sept. 4, 2007 by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO, the independent investigative arm of Congress, found that Iraq fulfilled only 3 of the 18 benchmarks.

President George Bush's problem is very clear, the ineffective Iraqi Government of Nouri al- Maliki. The troop surge was implemented in order to assist the government with realizing its benchmarks. It does not matter if the country is more peaceful if it does not have a functional government. It does not matter if the county is more peaceful if the Iraqis are not ensuring their own peace.

Further, consider the National Intelligence Estimate Report released in August. This report represents the collaborative judgments of all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the intelligence organization of each military service. The report predicts that the Iraqi government "will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months" because of criticism from members of Iraqi Shiite parties, Iraq's top Shiite religious figure Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Sunni and Kurdish factions." The assessment also expresses deep doubts that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki can overcome sectarian divisions and meet benchmarks intended to promote political unity. "Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively," the 10-page report concludes.

Corruption is hampering the ability of the government to make progress in Iraq as well. In July of 2006, U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker warned Congress that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry was hampering the country's ability to govern itself.

Further consider the words of Radhi al-Radhi, who since 2004 has headed the Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), an independent Iraqi institution that tries to investigate and prosecute corrupt Iraqi officials: "This is what's going on. The government has failed in doing its job." He estimates that the various ministries, hampered by fraud and waste, are only meeting between 2 and 5 percent of their obligations. He says that $7 billion has been pocketed or wasted at the Ministry of Defense, that the same has happened to $4 billion at the Ministry of Electricity. "At other ministries," he adds, "it's half a billion dollars here, a quarter of a billion dollars there. You can imagine the whole number. It works like the Mafia."

Just six years ago, after the events of 9/11/2001, the United States declared war on the Taliban in Afghanistan. In 2002, the Taliban was defeated and Harmid Karzai became the country's President. Progress in the country has been on a steady course ever since. Roads are being built, schools are in session, and business development is occurring. President Harmid Karzai is responsible for providing the stability and leadership that accounts for this progress in Afghanistan since 2002.

The United States has only 27,000 ground forces in Afghanistan today. Certainly challenges remain as the situation in Afghanistan is still far from ideal. The Taliban are trying to regroup, the poppy fields are still producing drugs at a record rate, and there is still difficulty with some warlords. However, Hamid Karzei's government acknowledges the challenges and is working towards long term solutions. Based on his government's effectiveness to date, there should be optimism for future success.

This optimism for progress in Afghanistan does not extend to Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki's government is corrupt and ineffective. The U.S . troop level commitment will never be reduced with the current government in place. The Prime Minister of Iraq needs to be replaced and a leader needs to emerge that can reconcile all factions in the country. The sooner this happens, the sooner the United States can eventually withdraw its troops. The unfortunate news for both Iraq and the United States is that Nouri al- Maliki is no Hamid Karzai.