CROCKER CAN'T CROCK. Everybody at TAPPED has been hammering away at this, but I'll do it again right now: in Iraq, political considerations trump any momentary military progress (not that there is any abundance of the latter). That's why today's announcement that the largest Sunni bloc has left Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet is grim news.

It's also why I'm a good deal more interested in Ambassador Ryan Crocker's part of the September benchmark report than General Petraeus's. It may be possible for the general to point to a few soldiers trained here and there as a sign of limited military progress. But, as Nancy Pelosi says, "The plural of anecdote is not data." Crocker cannot massage the political situation -- his success must be measured in deals actually made. It doesn't look like they're coming any time soon:

Philip Reeker, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Baghdad, said the recent increase in American troop strength, known as the surge, "has done what we wanted it to do in terms of bringing down levels of violence in Baghdad and Anbar, stabilizing populations and protecting populations -- that has gone very well." Mr. Reeker added, "The hardest part is taking advantage of these security gains to move the political process forward, both at the national and the local levels."

He expressed hope that Iraqi leaders would work to resolve their disputes over the Iraqi parliament's month-long August vacation.

In June, Crocker himself had little of that hope:

NPR: Is there any indication that those fighting are tired of this war? Last week on this show, former Gen. Barry McCaffrey told us that the stakes are higher than ever before because every side is positioning itself for the end game. Is he right?

CROCKER: Sometimes I think that in the U.S. we're looking at Iraq right now as though it were the last half of a three-reel movie. For Iraqis, it's a five-reel movie and they're still in the first half of it. I don't see an end game, as it were, in sight.

And at least until Republican senators stop obstructing changes in the war plan, we'll be stuck with a very, very bad movie.

--Matt Sledge