The Washington Post has reported that a new report compiled by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative division of Congress, throws another stone at the rosy picture the White House has been painting of the surge in Iraq. The official report will be delivered to Congress on Tuesday of next week. However, the advanced copy obtained by the Washington Post indicates the GAO has found failure across the board with respect to both military and political objectives.

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

Despite positive reports from the White House that have been echoed by Gen. Petraeus, the GAO has found that attacks on civilians has remained generally the same in the past sixth months. Additionally, the number of Iraqi army units capable of independent action decreased from 10 in March to six last month. A July report from the White House noted there had been a "slight" decline with the Iraqi units, though it did not mention the minimal drop had actually been one of 40 percent.

"Overall," the report concludes, "key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds," as promised. While it makes no policy recommendations, the draft suggests that future administration assessments "would be more useful" if they backed up their judgments with more details and "provided data on broader measures of violence from all relevant U.S. agencies."

The conflicting reports from the White House and other U.S. agencies casts a dubious light on what can actually be believed in the greatly anticipated Sept. 15 report.