I tend to have some confidence in Thomas Ricks' judgment about the coming end date for withdrawal from Iraq.
That's why, one day later, a second report in the Washington Post has a false ring to it. I hope.
Oh, I'm not in any doubt that "day-to-day commander" Odierno expects a fresh deployment of 35 -- 35 -- brigades lasting at least another eight months. I'm just wondering if this isn't further evidence of a war between the White House and Congress which could get almost as bloody and fierce as anything going on in Iraq.
But that's old stuff. There also seem to be several shades of difference between how Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno expresses himself -- what "the military say" -- on the one hand, and, on the other, what the more pragmatic Über Kommandant David Petraeus says when on Capitol Hill. Anyone else notice that?
U.S. commanders in Iraq are increasingly convinced that heightened troop levels, announced by President Bush in January, will need to last into the spring of 2008. The military has said it would assess in September how well its counterinsurgency strategy, intended to pacify Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, is working.
"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq. The new requirement of up to 15-month tours for active-duty soldiers will allow the troop increase to last until spring, said Odierno, who favors keeping experienced forces in place for now.
So in this giant-screen action movie theatre, should we focus on John Wayne and the Alamo, or should we be paying more attention to what's going on to the right and left of the screen?
Which is the fiction and which is reality? Which entity will wind up effectively being the decider? Congress (September 2007) or the White House (2008 at the earliest)? I guess we can leave the voters out of the decision-making process...
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday's announcement of the upcoming deployments "is not a reflection on any decision with respect to the duration of the surge."
Oh goody. That's a relief. Heel click.
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