The SubTalk of Troop Withdrawal from Iraq

Today, again, we had some military official speculate that the troops would begin leaving in Iraq soon; this on the heels of another such revelation a couple of weeks ago.

But I suspect this is just more smoke. Not very long ago, Cheney and Rumsfeld were hinting at a pullout by the time Bush leaves office (January 2009 unless someone decides to investigate one of the endless numbers of high crimes and misdemeanors) or 2112 in case the Boy King decides not to let us vote in 2008 "for reasons of national security."

Words like that didn't play well in most of America. It was always said rather parenthetically and Bush himself never referenced the far away date, so they started to pretend they never said it.

They're sending these "smaller" voices out now to make the public more hopeful our troops will leave Iraq this decade. But I doubt it's in the works. Later, when it doesn't happen, the WH will remind us Bush himself did not say it. Meanwhile, he'll have escaped months of unhappiness by the public fooled into believing the end was in sight.