Specific benchmarks, timetables and goals must be met with a goal towards removal of troops. One common way to challenge this view is that it lets insurgents wait for us to leave, but I pressed on a different end of the issue. If the Bush Administration continues its pattern of incompetence, what good does it do if you have benchmarks that are not met? In theory, the problem is that incompetence means there is no way out of Iraq.
Christine responded that Congressional oversight was the key and essentially that using that oversight tool to bring attention should eventually result in meeting benchmarks, but also that an intractable problem of incompetence may not be easy to solve with this administration.