Hey, wait a minute... September's not in the spring!

Who are they trying to kid with this one?

The U.S. may be able to reduce combat forces in Iraq by next spring if Iraq's own security forces continue to grow and improve, a senior American commander said Friday. He denied reports the U.S. is arming Sunni insurgent groups to help in the fight against al-Qaida.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top day-to-day commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, did not predict any reductions in U.S. forces but said such redeployments may be feasible by spring. There are currently 156,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

That sounds great! We only have to wait 9 months!

'Course, we heard the exact same thing in 2006:

On the eve of President Bush’s summit on Iraq, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad predicted Sunday that coalition troops will gradually move out of the country in the coming months.

Gen. George Casey said he thinks it will be possible to withdraw some of the 130,000 U.S. forces in the months ahead as long as Iraq’s government and security forces make progress.

And April 2006:

As the top U.S. commander in Iraq suggested today that the United States would soon reduce the number of troops in Iraq, Pentagon planners said to ABC News that they hoped to pull more than 30,000 troops out by the end of the year, and possibly by as early as November.

The reductions depend on political and security progress in Iraq.

And July 2005:

The top U.S. military leader in Iraq said Wednesday there could be substantial withdrawals of some of the 135,000 U.S. troops in the country as early as next spring.

Gen. George W. Casey said that despite continued lethal attacks by insurgents, the security situation in Iraq had improved. He reiterated a position he had taken earlier this year on the possible decrease in the U.S. military presence during a one-day visit by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for meetings with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari [...]

"If the political process continues to go positively, and if the development of the security forces continues to go as it is going, I do believe we'll still be able to take some fairly substantial reductions after these elections in the spring and summer," Casey said before meeting with Jafari.

And September of Frickin' 2004:

The United States Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has suggested US troop reductions in Iraq will be possible once Iraqi security forces were trained to take over their job.

Mr Rumsfeld made the comments following a meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Pentagon.

For close to three years, Administration officials have been saying that they might be able to reduce the forces if things go well. And they NEVER DO. So shouldn't news organizations simply refuse to print this boilerplate story anymore until there's actually something real behind it instead of "if a magical pony comes down and reconciles the Shia and Sunni, then sure, we can leave by spring!"

Also, of course, this pushes off the "decidering" from September to 6 months later, at which point another Friedman Unit will be needed, &c.