Here Are The Recommendations

Essentially, he's buying the John Warner strategy of letting a brigade go by Christmas, and then a reduction of the surge (which has to happen anyway) by next summer. We shouldn't make any other changes for another Friedman Unit (next March).

By the way, Warner's recommendation was met with howls from the Right; now that St. Petraeus is agreeing with it, do you expect a change in tone there?

Petraeus lets his slip show here. Defending the need to wait another six months, he claims that we couldn't have known what would have happened in Anbar Province, or in other tribal areas, or with repsect to Iran (another push for the drumbeat), just six months ago. That's pretty much because WE'RE NOT DRIVING IT. The "Anbar miracle" started without us, and we've had no impact on the political situation. We're similarly going to have no impact on the future of Iraq, whether we stay for 6 months or 60 years.

UPDATE: Also, Petraeus himself predicted the "Anbar Miracle" at his confirmation hearing, before the surge even began, suggesting that we had nothing to do with said "miracle," not will we be able to meaningfully impact it in the future.

UPDATE 2: The actual plan.



It's a graphical representation of Friedman Units.