The Safe Spot

An item so routine, it rates only a few paragraphs

Seven U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, including four in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said on Friday.

...

U.S. President George W. Bush visited Anbar on Monday and hailed improved security in the province, previously the most dangerous region in Iraq for American soldiers.

That's right.  And now it's the second deadliest region, in a year that's seen more deaths than any other.  

That's why the top story in the same issue of the New York Times that spares a few sentences for the death of these seven troops is spent discussing the "gains" in Anbar.  Oh, and they talk about the gains in Baghdad, which remains the deadliest area.

Way down the page, there's a reference to that dusty old report by the James Baker led Iraq Study Group.  Remember that old thing?

Some have endorsed a recommendation by the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan advisory panel, which called in late 2006 for a pullback of all combat brigades by the end of March 2008.

For more than a year now, there has been a bipartisan plan on the table in which nearly all troops would be deployed from Iraq by spring 2008, a plan that many regarded as too slow.  Through our skillful negotiation and waiting for the sudden outbreak of reason that would come with Magical September, the most widely discussed option now is one that only requires Bush to start thinking about a plan to withdraw troops someday.  When he gets around to it.  If he doesn't mind very much.  

In recent days, some Senate Democratic leaders have indicated a willingness to drop their insistence on a strict timetable for withdrawal. Instead, the Democratic senators are now discussing legislation that might set nonbinding goals for the completion of a drawdown that would shift most remaining American forces into support roles.

And please, sir, might we have another bowl of extremely thin and tasteless gruel?  Thank you for the progress.

We're but a Freidman unit away from Magical April, when the administration will run out of troops to put on the front lines, draw back to the levels before the recent escalation, parade it before the public as a "large reduction in forces," and claim that they, not the Democrats, are the only ones doing anything about reducing forces in Iraq.

And if Democrats don't have the guts to block yet another "supplemental," the administration will be right.