New Pentagon report touts progress in Iraq

A new report released here Tuesday by the Pentagon touted "across-the-board" progress in Iraq, including "significant improvement" in the security, economy, government services and political reconciliation.

The Congress-mandated quarterly report, called "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq", painted a rarely bright picture in contract with previous ones, which generally offered negative assessments.

In the security area, the most dramatic developments have been the reduction of violence.

According to the report, Iraq's weekly Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks have dropped 68 percent since June.

The number of U.S. troops deaths from IED fell to the lowest level since Jan. 2006.

The numbers of "high-profile attacks" fell by 62 percent since March.

Civilian casualties are now below the level seen before the Feb. 2006 Samarra bombing touched off a de facto civil war.

In economy and government services, among the good news are electricity production is up 14 percent over last year while oil production and oil exports are up slightly.

Although the Iraqi parliament has lagged, the report cites "bottom-up" reconciliation in the provinces.

The report also acknowledged that key national reconciliation laws need to be passed to solidify gains.

Despite all the touted progress, some U.S. experts said the current Iraq situation is essentially back to the level of 2004 and 2005, which is absolutely not a good time.