"Peace Is At Hand"

It's amazing to me that the crowd that's tried to dismiss the last three years in Iraq by saying "history will judge" and that it's only relevant to wait 20 years and see what's happening then will turn right around and tout two weeks' worth of progress, which is dubious to begin with, and extrapolate that out to a wide-ranging pronouncement:

Bombers killed nearly 50 Iraqis on Wednesday, mostly in Baghdad, but the top U.S. commander said a security drive in the capital was making progress and local forces could largely be running Iraq within 12 to 18 months.

General George Casey declined to be drawn on what that might mean for how many American troops could go home, and when.

He told reporters a fierce battle on Monday in which Shi'ite militiamen in a southern city killed at least 20 Iraqi soldiers -- 13 of them "executed" after they ran out of bullets -- was not a setback and that continuing operations would show the U.S.-trained Iraqi army had the upper hand in Diwaniya [...]

"I don't have a date, but I can see over the next 12-18 months the Iraqi security forces progressing to a point where they can take on the security responsibilities for the country, with very little Coalition support," Casey said in Baghdad.

In 1972, days before the Presidential election, Henry Kissinger emerged from months of secret negotiations with the North Vietnamese and declared "peace is at hand." It's debatable whether or not this won an election for Nixon which was going his way to begin with. But clearly the announcement of peace had a political cast to it. Approximately 1,500 soldiers died in Vietnam after that announcement. The Bush Administration won't go as far as ending the war immediately to save their political hides. But it's no secret that they sought to bring troops home this summer before conditions on the ground made that impossible. And there's no doubt they desire to restore public confidence by saying "We swear, the war's almost over" in a craven attempt to get votes. In a way, the White House is a victim of their own rhetoric. They were the ones who claimed it would be a cakewalk, that we'd be welcomed as liberators, that the war would pay for itself out of Iraqi oil revenues, and they're the ones who have lost all credibility with Americans based on those initial rosy reports. So any assessment now of "peace is at hand" must necessarily be viewed with a grain of salt, when coming from the same people who say "We aren't leaving so long as I'm the President."

This war widow's conversation last week with the President is honorable, but ultimately will do little good, I fear.

"We literally sat knee to knee...I looked deep into his eyes and talked to him about love and losing people and that he was responsible for this. I said, 'I didn't vote for you, but you are my President. And you're not serving me.'"

"I said I believed it was time to put an end to this. His job is to find solutions. I said, 'You yourself have said you had erroneous information going into this.'"

She continued: "I said, 'As a Christian man, you realize that when you've made a mistake it's your responsiblity to end this. And it's time to end the bleeding and it's time to end the war.'"

"I said, 'what would truly bring healing is to start working on changing your policy towards the Middle East...as President, you're here to serve the people. And the people are not being served with this war.'"

She added: "I told him, 'It's time as a Christian to put our pride behind us."

Halley said that the President appeared moved by what she'd said, but that she doubted it would bring about any real change. "He cried with me," she recounted. "I feel he responded to me emotionally. I don't know if that's going to change policy. It probably won't. But I hope it makes him think a little bit further."

Notice he appeared not to say a word throughout that, mentally checking his watch, I'd gather. Decisions on this policy have been made long ago. Leaving equals losing, and the President will simply not allow what he perceives as losing. So despite these timetables (I thought timetables would embolden the enemy, by the way), the die has already been cast, and the illogic the War Cabinet is trying the difficult dance of assuring the public we're leaving without ever leaving.