We’ve said here repeatedly that the one thing that the Bush administration needs to do on Iraq is hand it to the Democrats in January 2009. The only mistake he can make is to get the US out of Iraq before then. Because if he does that then he gives the Democrats a generational sound-bite. “Bush Lost Iraq.”
But with the qualified success of the “surge” and the inability of the Democrats to demand an immediate withdrawal, Bush has achieved his strategic objective. American troops will remain in strength in Iraq in January 2009. Immediately after Gen. Petraeus made his report to Congress, President Bush announced a minor troop withdrawal, report Jon Ward and Sara A. Carter.
The president’s troop reduction, which will be announced in a nationally televised speech at 9 p.m. tomorrow, will be a few thousand less than the 30,000 advised by Gen. Petraeus, a White House official told The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity.
There will be some draw down, but not much.
This puts the Democrats just where the president wants them. The party is suspended between an Angry Left that just doesn’t believe in using the power of the US armed forces for anything except rooting racists out of the South and the mainstream of America that believes the president should “make us safe.”
And the war on terror, or World War IV, or whatever, goes on.
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