Word: drawdown
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Luckily for Giuliani and Romney, most Republicans don't associate them with the surge, as they do John McCain. Most either don't know what the GOP front runners think or think they agree with them and support a Baker-Hamilton-style drawdown. In a July Hotline poll, only 17% of Republicans knew that Giuliani opposes any troop withdrawal from Iraq, and only 12% knew that Romney did. For both men, that's good news. They don't want to be identified with a policy that's unpopular even among Republicans, let alone the rest of America. But they...
...worked beautifully. But there's a problem. One way Romney and Giuliani have evaded clear answers on the surge is by delaying the question until September, when General David Petraeus will report on its progress. Now September is here. Petraeus will probably oppose any immediate troop withdrawal, deferring any drawdown until next spring. Bush and most conservative pundits will demand that the surge continue into 2008. And Romney and Giuliani will find it harder to bob and weave. The press, which has given both men an easy ride on the issue, may start turning the screws. With luck, so will...
...Prime Minister is expected to make a statement about the timing and management of a further drawdown in October, when parliament returns after the long summer break and after delivery of a situation report by U.S. General David Petraeus, expected in September. Speculation is rife that Britain is heading as fast as possible for the exit. "The British have given up and they know they will be leaving Iraq soon," the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr told the British daily The Independent, on Aug. 20. His gleeful tone contrasted with the increasingly irritable mood music in Washington...
...inept, and many of the problems that now beset Iraq can be traced to their missteps. But it is now clear that Maliki has been no improvement. Worse, his stubborn refusal to reach out to Sunnis is undermining the U.S. military's efforts to pacify Iraq and begin a drawdown of American troops. From Gen. Petraeus on down, commanders have repeatedly said the "surge" operation in and around Baghdad can work only if their military gains are accompanied by progress on the political front. Maliki has not kept up his end of the bargain...
...will begin to wane in March 2008, no matter what Congress decides in September; the current 20 brigade combat teams will be reduced to 15 by August 2008. There is growing speculation in the military that Bush will try to pre-empt the Petraeus testimony by announcing a gradual drawdown from 20 to 15 combat brigades later this summer. "As if that isn't going to happen anyway," a senior officer told me. "But it may give us some political breathing space" - that is, it may subvert the Democrats' calls for a more rapid withdrawal - "if the President makes...