Spencer Ackerman February 7, 2007, 3:46 PM

Poor Carl Levin. First the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee insists on getting a list of the fabled “benchmarks” that President Bush said the Iraqi government had agreed to, only to see that the actual benchmarks are pretty insubstantial (“November 2006: Approve a Flag, Emblem and National Anthem Law”) and none were met. Now, in his press briefing today, White House spokesman Tony Snow derided the very idea that the Iraqi government ought to be held to its stated commitments:

Q Tony, the President said in his speech on the 10th that America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced. How do you follow through on that pledge if Iraq is not meeting its own target dates for certain pieces of legislation, they’re not supplying troops into Baghdad at the numbers that were expected? What does the White House do to follow through?

MR. SNOW: I think the most important thing to do is to keep in mind what is, in fact, going on. For instance, yesterday, I think the Prime Minister stood up before everybody and said, “I call on you quickly to finish the preparations so we don’t disappoint people.” He also made the point that either we win or — “Either we all win or we all lose. The whole world is watching us and expecting us to win.”

I think at this point, to try to start rendering summary judgment at the very beginning of an effort by the Iraqis not only to deal with matters of legislation, but also economic development and getting forces on the ground, and for that matter, getting their headquarters and command stood up, is a little premature. The other thing we’ve said is if it takes a couple extra days or weeks at one end or another, we’re going to understand that.

The president, by contrast, said on January 10:

I’ve made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq’s other leaders that America’s commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people — and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people. Now is the time to act.

Or, if it takes a couple extra days or weeks at one end or another, the time to act will be then.

Iraq