Iraq Time Tables

Interesting that the Administration is making a form of timetable. Not for withdrawal mind you, but for the Iraqi government completing security benchmarks.

Press reports over the weekend said the Bush administration is drawing up a timetable, not for pulling troops out of Iraq as Democrats want, but for forcing the Iraqi government to assume a bigger role in securing the country.

The news did not impress Democrats, however.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said it appears President Bush is belatedly recognizing "that his strategy is a failure and that a change in course is needed."

Reid also questioned the timing of the report: "Given that this action comes just two weeks before the midterm elections, it appears the Administration is driven as much by the hope of heading off election-year defeats here at home as by ending the escalating violence in Iraq."

Reid said no plan would be effective without "benchmarks tied directly to the drawdown of U.S. troops." He said that's the measurement that matters most.

What a surprise. Reid doesn't like the plan. But then, did anyone expect him to like anything that the administration proposed. I'm betting that if Bush proposed immediate withdrawal Reid would say it's the wrong thing to do. It's even sillier to listen to him state that the President is just playing politics due to the coming election. You can be certain that Reid isn't playing politics.