A Plan for Iraq

We had one since June 2005. OK, that was more than two years after the invasion....

Our Leader himself told us:

So our strategy going forward has both a military track and a political track. The principal task of our military is to find and defeat the terrorists, and that is why we are on the offense. And as we pursue the terrorists, our military is helping to train Iraqi security forces so that they can defend their people and fight the enemy on their own. Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.

And, um, we're still implementing it so it must, uh, be the right plan....

From the "We Feel Better Already" Department, the New York Times reports today that any Pentagon plan to send more troops to Iraq would only be temporary: "The plan envisions the additional troops staying only until security conditions improve," the Times says. "After that, troop levels could come down, as better-trained and equipped Iraqi units took on a larger security role."

We hate to be skeptical -- we know that the White House isn't "staying the course" anymore -- but we think we've seen this movie before. George W. Bush, on June 28, 2005, and pretty much every day thereafter: "Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."