The White House is coming perilously close to admitting that Bush has no expectation of achieving "victory" in Iraq. He's just playing out the clock to make the problem someone else's. Petraeus's goal for an assessment of the escalation to come in summer is now pushed back to September, and the administration is now committed to downplaying prosects for progress.
In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.
That prospect would entail a dramatically longer commitment of frontline troops, patrolling the most dangerous neighborhoods of Baghdad, than the one envisioned in legislation that passed the House and Senate this week. That vote, largely symbolic because Democrats do not have the votes to override the promised presidential veto, set deadlines that would lead to the withdrawal of combat troops by the end of March 2008.
On Friday, during an appearance with Japan’s prime minister at Camp David, President Bush said that he would invite congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday, immediately after his expected veto message, to talk about a "way forward."
The only way forward is out. And the idea that Bush will come around to that idea is becoming more obviously ridiculous. This man won't give up on Alberto Gonzales, for chrissakes, what would make him abandon this debacle? His veto, expected first thing next week, will just reinforce his commitment to keeping the troops in Iraq until at least January 20, 2009.
The fight over the Iraq supplemental bill has cemented in the public mind the idea that Congress has set a deadline for withdrawal at March 31, 2008, a deadline they wholeheartedly support regardless of the "symbolic" nature of the vote.
Following an onslaught of opinion polls on Iraq, the most recent CBS/NYT poll has 64 percent supporting a timetable that gets us out in '08, 57 percent want Congress to have the final say over troops levels, and a record 71 percent disapproving of Bush's handling of Iraq.
That public support should stiffen the resolve of Congressional Democrats in the post-veto debate, particularly now that they've set an expectation in the public that withdrawal in '08 is their line in the sand.