Kevin Drum highlights a Times article talking about the latest plans for troop withdrawals. In the comments, craigie says:

Good thing none of this was suggested by a Democratic contender for President. That would have been treason.

The whole, no timetable so the terrorists don’t wait us out thing was a crock from the beginning. It was a crock in the 2004 elections and it’s a crock now. Clearly, we’re not going to stay there at our current force levels indefinitely. Second, this administration has done nothing about this war that hasn’t been timed to coincide with domestic politics. The war authorization and the push to get the U.N. to O.K. the war was pushed for the 2002 midterm elections. The presidential election saw several high profile captures and the other positive announcements about the Iraq war.

If the insurgents have the least bit of awareness about U.S. politics knows that the first batch of troop withdrawals will coincide with the 2006 mid-term elections. We’ve known this since the war began. The execution of this war from initial troop levels to the “sales’ pitch about the war to this discussion about troop levels has been motivated by one thing and one thing only: domestic U.S. politics.

But Bush listens to his generals on the ground, of course. And ignores them….