Bush on Iraq: "It's getting better. Wait, not so much. Oh, now it's better again."

Well which is it, Mr. President? A month ago you told us that the Iraqi government wasn't making satisfactory progress. Then last night you say have patience, because “they're getting some things done.”

From today's Washington Post:

In his speech last night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at imes contradicted recent government reports or his own words ....

Bush also asserted that Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, was once an al-Qaeda stronghold but that “today, Baqubah is cleared.” But in a meeting with reporters on Aug. 27, the head of the State Department team in Diyala said the security situation was not stable, hampering access to food and energy, though he acknowledged that commerce was returning to Baqubah ....

Bush also thanked “the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq.” But the State Department's most recent weekly report on Iraq said there are 25 countries supplying 11,685 troops — about 7 percent of the size of the U.S. forces.

Read the rest here.