DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - WASHINGTON D.C.: IS SEPTEMBER 2007 THE U.S. WITHDRAWAL DATE FROM IRAQ?!?!?

Analysis: Bush offering a withdrawal date?
By CLAUDE SALHANIUPI

Since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, the Bush administration has vacillated over a number of foreign policy issues. It has, for instance, refused to engage in talks with Iraqi Sunni insurgents, then reversed course when the violence reached new heights. The administration has repeatedly refused to have any contact with Iran, only to reverse that policy as late as Monday.

Breaking the diplomatic ice after 27 years of no direct contact between Washington and Tehran, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad met his Iranian counterpart for a session that lasted four hours.

But throughout the tortuous ordeal that has been the Iraq war, the president and his administration have remained adamant over one major topic: that of refusing to establish a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from the war, despite growing opposition at home. One can safely say that it was the Iraq war that caused the Republican Party to lose the majority in both houses of Congress to the Democrats last November.

President Bush was consistent in not wanting to give the enemy a date by which U.S. soldiers would leave Iraq. The president argued, as did many others, that so doing -- in announcing a date by which the United States would pull out of Iraq -- would be tantamount to communicating vital military information to the enemy. The president remained steadfast that no timetable, no self-imposed calendar for pulling out U.S. troops, would be made. And in that regard, the president has not budged.

But then suddenly within the past few weeks the administration seemed to change course without really meaning to. It happened in a very roundabout way. The administration, it would appear, has opted for a timetable of a different sort, but one nevertheless that would result in the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from Iraq, or at least a large number of them.
That date is set for September, just four months away.

As it turns out, for a number of weeks now September has been floated around Washington as an important month to watch, as far as the war goes. By that time the generals who are running the war will reassess the situation on the ground following the surge ordered earlier in the year by the president. By September the generals and the civilians who direct them in Washington should have a pretty good and clear idea on how the surge has worked -- or not worked.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Analysis: Bush offering a withdrawal date?