Early Pullout Unlikely in Iraq

Found this article in the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, Aug. 10 -- Iraq's leaders and military will be unable to lead the fight against insurgents until next summer at the earliest, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday, trying to temper any hopes that a full-scale American troop withdrawal was imminent as Iraq moves toward elections scheduled for December.

Both Americans and Iraqis need "to start thinking about and talking about what it's really going to be like in Iraq after elections," said the military official, who spoke in an interview on the condition he not be named. "I think the important point is there's not going to be a fundamental change."

U.S. military officials in Iraq said last month that it might be possible to withdraw 20,000 to 30,000 of the 138,000 American troops by next spring if Iraqi civilian leaders managed to meet deadlines for drafting a new constitution and holding elections.

On Wednesday, the military official said a significant spring withdrawal was "still possible." But while primary military responsibility for some parts of Iraq could likely be handed over even before the elections, the official said, U.S. forces would have to play a lead role in fighting the insurgency for at least a year. Even if a new government is elected on time in December, "the earliest they're going to be capable of running a counterinsurgency campaign is . . . next summer," the official said.

So first the Bush White House floats the idea that some U.S. troops may be pulled out next spring, and now they're saying that such a pullout is not going to happen? President Bush is now sinking in this morass called Iraq. This last week has seen an increase in terrorist attacks against U.S. troops--especially with a bombing that killed 14 Marines and their interpreter last week. Bush's poll numbers have been dropping with the August 1-3 poll showing only a 38 percent approval in his handling of Iraq, and now the press has latched onto Cindy Sheehan's protest stay outside of Bush's ranch.

I wonder if the American public is now starting to wake up on this issue.