Everything is Going According to Plan

Just as many have predicted, we might be  about to declare victory and start heading home, regardless of the real situation on the ground.

This might be one of those wise  decisions (drawing down troops)  wrapped in unwise  and unreal rhetoric ("Iraqi troops are tanned, rested, and ready to take over!"). I'm always wary that the rhetoric will end up driving the decision, but there are a lot of unknowns still here...

Update:  Think of it this way: We went in under the cover of dishonesty ("Saddam won't let the inspectors inspect," etc) and now we might be leaving under the cover of it too.  Quelle surprise.

Comments

[Cal]

Eric, did you catch that Time magazine article last week that said our military leaders were asking for more troops and getting turned down? It seems to me that if we do start to withdraw, Bush is acknowledging that we don't have the resources to accomplish even our minimum goals.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1132819,00.html

"...The battalion commanders, according to sources close to last week's meeting, said that because there are not enough troops, they have to "leapfrog" around Iraq to keep insurgents from returning to towns that have been cleared out. The officers also stressed that the lack of manpower — rather than of protective armor or signal jammers — posed one of the biggest obstacles in dealing with roadside bombs..."

[Zathras]

Another way to look at it is that while the White House is in full command of the rhetoric it uses against the President's critics it is not actually running the war. That is mostly being done out of Central Command and the Embassy in Baghdad, which together are mapping out policy on a mostly improvised, step-by-step basis with some clearance requirements from Defense, State and NSA, probably in that order.

From my point of view this is actually the best-case scenario. It does mean that as policy does change (or evolve, or whatever) over the next few months, the White House press corps will most likely not get the news first.

[Stacy Rosenbaum]

At least the dictator is disarmed and gone, and we showed the world we can kick ass.