I don't believe my eyes

"In the firmest indication yet of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, America's most senior general there and its top civilian official have drawn the outlines of a political and military plan that could see a substantial pullout of US troops within 12 to 18 months," Rupert Cornwall reported in the most recent Independent.

Apparently, those approval ratings are a more powerful force than I thought they'd be for Bush. He must have gotten sick of being at odds with 60+ percent of his country. The swing voters started heading for the Democrats (according to the polls), violence escalated over the past month or so, and maybe George finally heard what folks were saying, oh, two years ago? More? I can't even remember.

I started seeing rumblings that they were abandoning the "stay the course" phrase, but I just figured it would amount to a rhetorical shift -- maybe they'd say "stick around" instead. I guess they're finally pulling our men and women out of there.

It's a really tricky situation. I mean, we shouldn't have had them there in the first place, so I guess this fixes that, but I can't help but feel like we're leaving them with a real mess on their hands. I hate to say it, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this marks the beginning of an absolutely unchecked civil war. I don't think we should stay there, I guess, because under our watch, 655,000 people have died. But will it get worse over there? Will we withdraw carefully, trying not to leave a total vacuum in our wake? Is there any way to do that? I mean, Bush and Rumsfeld don't have a great track record for running this sort of thing. Will the sectarian violence subside once we leave, or will one party trounce the other and make another Iran?

I suppose if it does degenerate into a civil war, perhaps, under those auspices, the UN could be persuaded to launch some peacekeeping efforts, but, honestly, that hasn't happened to great effect in Sudan yet. Or in any of the dozens of hotspots around the world.

I guess we'll just pray for now?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1927145.ece