SWEET! THE PROBLEMS IN IRAQ ARE SOLVED!

As much as I try to stay away from Iraq, now I am optimistic. At first, I thought the fact that Bush was going in his own direction might possibly be like before, when he ignored everybody else to pursue an entirely inane strategy. But, according to The New York Times, there is a new foolproof plan as part of the Bush team's new proposal:

Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders

Even better,

Without saying what the specific penalties for failing to achieve the goals would be, American officials insisted that they intended to hold the Iraqis to a realistic timetable for action, but the Americans and Iraqis have agreed on many of the objectives before, only to fall considerably short.

Yes, but now we have something different, because

Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders

Sounds awesome! I am thinking about what the goals could be right now, perhaps:
(1) When you say you're going to confiscate cell phones, mean it.
(2) Establish a committee to talk about establishing cooperation between ethnic groups, and not have any parties walk out of the meetings, or any member of the committee disappear.
(3) Establish militia quotas so that only 90% of the personnel in any given government ministry can be members of the minister's party's militia. (They can still have 100% of the guns, though).

Before I am berated for sarcasm, has the Iraqi government actually done any of the above? (Maybe #3 in a few instances). Seriously, a government that cannot even carry out an internationally-watched execution with dignity, nor control its own supposedly loyal personnel to the point that they violate the ground rules for the procedure, cannot be trusted to carry out anything.

And perhaps I am a little pessimistic and cynical, but when the president rejects the proposals of a bipartisan study group and the feelings of the voters who demolished his party in the election due to this very issue, I expect better than a "series of benchmarks" and keeping already-tired troops in the country another few months.