The pox-americanus department for “ever-lasting war”, the Pentagon, this week released its first quarterly report assessing el-bushit's escalation strategy, confirming that overall levels of violence in the country actually "increased throughout much of Iraq in recent months," as attacks "shifted away from Baghdad & Anbar" & into "cities & provinces that had been relatively peaceful before the Bush administration's troop buildup."

Political reconciliation has almost entirely stalled, suicide bombings "more than doubled" from January to April, sectarian deaths have increased beyond pre-escalation levels, & US troop deaths are spiking.

During a press briefing yesterday, Outhouse spokesman, Tony, “white blanket”, Snow, said the increasing chaos was a positive sign. The new levels of attacks "fit a pattern that we see throughout the region," he said, "which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence."

Also yesterday, Snow downplayed the importance of the September Iraq report from top US commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus. Just last month, el-bushit said September would be an "important moment" in the war because "Petraeus says that's when he'll have a pretty good assessment as to what the effects of the surge has been."

Yesterday, Snow described Petraeus's report as merely a "first opportunity" to "have a little bit of a metric" to "see what happens when you have all the forces in place for the Baghdad security plan."

Citing "uneven cooperation" and little "concrete progress," the pox report concluded that "reconciliation between Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni factions" remains "a serious unfulfilled objective."

Furthermore, the report found that suicide bombings across Iraq have doubled since January, overall violence "has increased in most provinces," and "civilian casualties rose slightly, to more than 100 a day."

Echoing his mouthpiece, el-bushit attempted to dismiss the report's conclusions, saying that it is still "too early to judge the results of this new strategy" by repeating the myth that US forces "haven't even started the full surge yet."

As always, bushit is wrong - it is not "too early to judge" the results of his escalation in Iraq. As Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explained nearly six months ago at the start of the escalation plan, "we'll have pretty good early indications of their performance" before "very many American soldiers have been sent to Iraq": "Well, as I indicated, we're going to know pretty early on whether the Iraqis are meeting their military commitments, in terms of being able to go into all neighbourhoods, in terms of the Iraqis being in the lead & carrying out the leadership & the fighting, & for there not to be political interference in the military operations that are going forward," Gates said.

Furthermore, bushit's assertion that U.S. forces "haven't started" the surge yet becomes almost laughable as the Washington Post reports today that with an additional 28,500 U.S. troops "now posted in the country," a military spokesman said yesterday that the "Iraq troop surge [is] complete."

Meanwhile, the Potomac’s serial spinmeister & local accredited bushit spokeshead, “honest john” rattus - caught stepping from another non-fundraising event – lashed out at his former friend & ally, the Iraqi government ….

The Sydney Morning Herald says “honest john” believes the Iraqi Government is not pulling its weight to help end violence in the country & he believes the recent increase of US troops has produced mixed success so far.

The paper reports that in an interview with rattus yesterday, he said the Iraqi Government, led by the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was not doing enough to rein in the sectarian violence.

"I'm still quite unhappy with the reconciliation process inside Iraq," said rattus.

Adopting his best coaching manner, rattus said: "The Maliki Government should be doing more on that. They should be doing a lot more. It's absolutely critical; I made that clear when I saw him three months ago & [the US President George] Bush makes that clear to him every week."

Rattus said: "The surge has not reached its peak & it won't reach its peak for some weeks yet."

Echoing the hilarious logic of his cousin, “white blanket” Snow, “honest john” said the US presence in Iraq was all that was preventing it from descending into chaos & saving the rest of the Middle East from becoming "even more of a tinder box".

"If you take American influence and power out, you take away the essential stabiliser. That would be a terrible mistake."

Rattus rejected suggestions the US presence was acting as a catalyst, not only for the Iraqi violence, but for the growing civil conflict in the Palestinian territories & the destabilisation of Lebanon by pro-Syrian extremists.

He said if the US left the Middle East, constraints on both Iran & Israel could be lifted.

Along with the dead in Palestine & Lebanon, I’ve always appreciated the “constraints” that el-bushit exercises over Israeli ….