Bush Agrees To Iraq Troop Cuts and

Posted by Ashish on 07.18.2008

Bush starting to come around to Obama plan...

George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki have agreed to set a "general time horizon" for the further reduction of U.S. combat forces in Iraq.

The White House offered no specific dates for troop cuts, but the inclusion of even just a reference to a time horizon is a significant concession by the Bush administration, which has long resisted setting a timetable for cuts in combat forces. It is a tacit admission that the United States' military presence in Iraq is not endless.

Calling the timetable a "time horizon" is a way for Bush to essentially fall in line with Obama's Iraq plan (for the most part) without using the wording Obama uses, so to avoid having to admit to conforming to an Obama-ish plan. Bush had shouted from the rooftops not too long ago about how foolish setting any sort of timetable would be, and he now seems ready to agree to one.

This is not good for McCain (regardless of how he tries to frame it), who continues to try and brag about the surge (he is crediting the above news on the success of the surge) and who has made a point to say time and time again how foolish a timetable would be. Make no mistake about it, "time horizon" is just a way of saying "timetable" without actually saying it since the word "timetable" has become associated with the Democratic Iraq policies.

The Obama/McCain debate over Iraq has essentially been whether to withdraw a significant number of troops now or not, and whether it is acceptable to set a timetable, or establish a "time horizon" as Bush would say, on when to withdraw troops. Now that Bush is already going to start reducing troops and agree to a timetable of sorts, it puts McCain in a real box. He either has to come out and say that not only is withdrawing troops and setting a timetable wrong when Obama says it, it is also wrong now that Bush has agreed to it. Or he can change his stance and say he now agrees with withdrawal and setting a timetable which would be a major flip-flop from his stance on the issue which virtually everyone associates with him. He will try to cover this up by saying he was right all along and that now we can withdraw and set a timetable because of the success of the surge, but he himself has been saying as recently as a few days ago that it isn't time to start withdrawing troops from Iraq yet and that any sort of timetable would be a mistake.

McCain has defined his campaign largely based on wanting to stay the course in Iraq. This puts a major dent in that and is going to force him to come out against Bush or to change his stance on the issue (or just ignore the changes in Iraq and Bush's policies all together) and thus change what his campaign has been based on.

It's also interesting that the White House dropped this news today, knowing Obama is apparently on his way to Iraq and wouldn't be able to make "I told you so" media rounds.