Iraq, there is a timetable

The New York Times has an editorial on the Senate resolution on Iraq.

The actual content of the resolution, passed on a vote of 79 to 19, was meaningless. The Senate asked the administration to provide regular reports on progress in Iraq, and took the position that next year should be "a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty." It was a desperate - but toothless - cry of election-bound lawmakers to be let off the hook for a disastrous military quagmire.

After a few paragraphs of the standard we were wrong about WMD but everyone else was too bull shit they get down to the reality, the real timetable.

President Bush has lost the confidence of the American people, and his own party, when it comes to handling Iraq. If he wants to win it back, he must come up with a very clear road map for what he expects, both politically and militarily, from the Iraqi government. If the Iraqis fail to meet those goals, he must demonstrate that the price of equivocation is American withdrawal.

If the president fails, the American public has a timetable of its own. Elections for the House and the Senate are less than a year away.

While the above is true it's doesn't go far enough. This is a timetable for Bush and a timetable for the Republicans but it is also a timetable for the DC Democrats. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Bush's approval rating has found a new bottom at 34%. But lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, fair even worse.

At the same time, only a quarter of Americans polled give Democrats a positive rating in the latest poll, compared with 31% in August, while Republicans' approval ratings fell to 27% from 32%.

Americans now know they were lied to about Iraq and they know that they are still being lied to. It is the American voter who will decide the timetable for ending the US involvement in Iraq.

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