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Section[ PART I - Strategic Overview

Title[ OUR STRATEGY TRACKS AND MEASURES PROGRESS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

OUR STRATEGY TRACKS AND MEASURES PROGRESS

-- We track numerous indicators to map the progress of our strategy and change our tactics

whenever necessary.  Detailed reports - both classified and unclassified - are issued weekly,

monthly, and quarterly by relevant agencies and military units.

- Many of these reports with detailed metrics are released to the public, and are readily

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accessible.  For example:

-  Gains in training Iraqi security forces are updated weekly at www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil ;

-  Improvements in the economy and infrastructure are collected weekly by the State

Department (www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rpt/iraqstatus/ ) as well as USAID, which continually

updates its many ongoing programs and initiatives in Iraq (www.usaid.gov/iraq );

-  Extensive reports are also made every three months to Congress, and are accessible at the

State (www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rpt/2207/ ) and Defense (www.defenselink.mil/pubs/ )

Department websites.

> Americans can read and assess these reports to get a better sense of what is being done in

Iraq and the progress being made on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

- Some of the most important metrics we track are:

-  Political:  The political benchmarks set forth in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546

and the Transitional Administrative Law; the number of Iraqis from all areas willing to

participate in the political process as evidenced by voter registration and turnout.

-  Security:  The quantity and quality of Iraqi units; the number of actionable intelligence

tips received from Iraqis; the percentage of operations conducted by Iraqis alone or with

minor Coalition assistance; the number of car bombs intercepted and defused; offensive

operations conducted by Iraqi and Coalition forces; and the number of contacts initiated

by Coalition forces, as opposed to the enemy.

-  Economic:  GDP; per capita GDP; inflation; electricity generated and delivered; barrels of

oil produced and exported; and numbers of businesses opened.

- Other indicators are also important to success, but less subject to precise measurement, such as

the extent to which principles of transparency, trust in government institutions, and acceptance

of the rule of law are taking hold amongst a population that has never known them.

- These indicators have more strategic significance than the metrics that the terrorists and

insurgents want the world to use as a measure of progress or failure: number of bombings.

-- The following pages break down the three tracks of our strategy - political, security,

economic - and explain the logic behind them in more detail.

"The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th, if we

abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi, and if we yield the future of the Middle East to

men like Bin Laden.  For the sake of our nation's security, this will not happen on my watch."

- President George W. Bush, June 28, 2005

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