Less than a week after Gen. David Petraeus spun fairy tales for Congress about a successful "surge," the Pentagon has released their quarterly report on Iraq and they seem to have a different story to tell. Security taking a turn for the worse here, increasing violence there, and militias growing influence everywhere. In other words, the same things we've been hearing for the past four years. And now George Bush wants Congress to wait until March for another, "fresh assessment."

So in the coming weeks, while Congress decides if we will stay the course for another six months of "breathing space" for the Maliki government, perhaps they should consider this conclusion from the Pentagon:

The growing violence in the south is one factor making it unlikely that Iraq's leaders -- hampered by a "zero sum" mentality -- will make headway in the fall on key political resolutions, the report concluded. "In the short term, Iraqi political leaders will likely be less concerned about reconciliation than with consolidating power and posturing for a future power struggle," it said.

And perhaps Congress can take a moment to remember the 767 U.S. soldiers and the more than 15,000 Iraqis who have been killed since the latest plan for success began.