So we have a timeline for re-evaluation. I think it is sometime in September and the Iraqi government seems to be trying to meet the benchmarks.  Lane, this is one for you because since you were in the construction business you know how to stretch a dollar.  Since we are pushing them are we producing a less quality product (to relate the 2) or to make it clear, Will this actually unite the country?  Will it break? and if so.  Are they going to be united against us or will they just make it seem like it will work just to appease us, and when we are gone go back to civil war?

At this point, nothing that we can do.  It seems like we are making some progress as most of Al Qaeda are from other countries.  A few posts back, I saw that they are actually fighting with the americans, which is GOOOOOD!  Lesser of the two evils, but hey Ill take it.  Does anyone think that even after everything is said and done there can actually be peace in that country?

BAGHDAD - Iraqis are making some progress toward enacting legislative "benchmarks" the United States demands — but probably not fast enough to satisfy critics of Iraq's political impasse. The bigger question: Would any laws passed by a parliament at each others' throats really lead to true unity?

U.S. officials, mindful of the dwindling American support for the war, have been pressing the Iraqis to pass laws to share the nation's oil wealth, open government jobs to Sunnis who supported Saddam Hussein, amend the constitution to satisfy Sunni aspirations and hold local elections.

Reinforcing that message, President Bush said Thursday that the Iraqis "have got to be making tough decisions towards reconciliations."

He told an audience at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., that "we expect the government to function and to pass laws."

The Americans believe those steps would lay the foundation for a sustainable and fair political system. They would also help convince the American public and Congress that the sacrifices in Iraq are producing results.

But the U.S. has offered similar assurances before — when sovereignty was restored in 2004, when elections were held in 2005 and when a new "national unity" government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds took power in 2006.

Those formulas had little effect in stemming violence. Laws enacted by Iraqi officials holed up in the Green Zone have limited impact in a country whose institutions have all but collapsed.

"Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. But before and beyond that, Iraq has become a failed state — a country whose institutions and with them any semblance of national cohesion have been obliterated," the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said in a report this month.

Although some progress is being made, none of the proposed bills is ready for debate in the 275-member parliament, although Iraqi officials insist the oil measure is nearly complete.

Nevertheless, committees have been wrestling with the issues for months. They have hammered out the broad outlines of an oil law and proposals to relax the laws banning former members of Saddam's party from government posts.

Meanwhile, closed-door talks are under way among major parties to streamline the government — keeping Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the helm but with curbs on sectarian influence.

But much work remains, and it is still an open question whether deals can be finalized in parliament before Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker issue a highly anticipated Iraq progress report in September. The summer break for Iraqi lawmakers also is approaching, but no dates have been set.

Measuring progress is difficult here because the power system is so opaque. Breakthroughs don't always come in committee meetings or public legislative sessions, but more often in secretive back room conclaves among sectarian and ethnic politicians who operate like warlords.

Progress has been slow because the issues strike at the heart of the Iraq conflict — a struggle for power among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in the wake of Saddam's ouster. Compromise often takes a back seat to a "winner take all" ethos.

That makes finding solutions all the more difficult, especially when Iraqis are rushed to meet a Washington-driven timetable.

Since 2003, American officials have pushed the Iraqis to meet schedules set more by U.S. political interests than the realities of a fragmented country.

Rather than solving problems, U.S. pressure has often created a whole new set of issues. In fact, some of the latest U.S.-demanded "benchmarks" are an attempt to correct flawed policies put in place years ago under American pressure.

For example, the battle over a new oil bill boils down to a fight over who controls the oil fields and oil revenues. In the rush to meet a U.S.-driven deadline for finishing the constitution in 2005, the Shiites and Kurds steamrolled through a system of decentralized control, with the Kurds managing fields in the north and the Shiites taking those in the south.

That enraged Sunnis, whose heartland is the mostly oil-dry central and western provinces. They fear they would be cut out of the wealth in the post-Saddam Iraq.

Likewise, the Americans themselves pushed for removing many Baath Party members from government posts, although U.S. officials insist the Iraqis went further in their purge than Washington had expected.

All of this begs the question: Even if the new laws are passed, how long will it take for the violence to cool? That could take years.

"Recognizing that Iraq is a failed state is fundamental to understanding that it lacks the capacity to fix itself, no matter how much pressure the United States applies," Middle East experts Carlos Pascual and Kenneth M. Pollock said in a recent issue of The Washington Quarterly.

"Rebuilding the political, economic, and bureaucratic institutions of a failed state requires considerable resources and a long-term commitment."

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Robert H. Reid is correspondent-at-large for The Associated Press based and has frequently reported from Baghdad since 2003.