But Is It a "Timeline"?

Bush's speech last night hit on a lot of key points that will hopefully get things in Iraq turned in the right direction. It's not exactly a revelation to say that the situation in Baghdad is not as rosy as had been predicted back in the heady days of 2002 and 2003.

Adding more troops will assist in maintaining order and retaining footholds in the areas which American and Iraqi forces have secured. No more will they clear out an area, leave, and have to return in a matter of weeks or even days. The increased troop presence will of course put more Americans in the line of fire, and will thus give the insurgents more targets (to say nothing of their greater determination). The "media sense," such as it is, is saying that this is Bush's "last chance" to get Iraq strategy right, which gives the coming months a greater sense of a final showdown in the offing.

The introduction of November 2007 as a target for Iraqis to be in charge of their own security, however, is a significant departure from Bush's strategy in Iraq. It sounds as much of a target date as anything we've heard in the past, and this sounds like a timeline, which Bush has been reticent to announce thus far. It's not quite "November 2007 and we're out" but it is still a significant benchmark with a hard date, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens after that date. Will Washington begin pulling back its troop commitments? I suppose that only time will tell...