I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person. I read a good deal, I like to discuss issues, I am pretty open to differing opinions. With that said there is one thing I cannot wrap my head around.

Right now the Democrats are urging for some kind of timetable concerning Iraq. The latest report today was that the Pentagon has rebuked Sen. Clinton over her request for the Pentagon to start working on withdrawal plans. Those in the Pentagon as well as the administration argue that any talk of a date for withdrawal bolsters the enemy. Their logic is that if terrorists know the United States will leave they simply have to hold out until that date in order to achieve their objectives.

Here is my ignorance on the issue. Don’t the people of Iraq and therefore our enemies already know we are going to leave? Don’t you usually leave at some point after a war? Whether it is two weeks, two months, two years, two decades, two centuries, sooner or later and we all hope sooner, the United States has to move on.

So if our ultimate objective is to head out of there, shouldn’t we at least come up with some kind of plan for doing it with reasonable benchmarks?

Now I am not trying to take sides here. I just don’t get it. The president has suggested he would like to see the United States role in Iraq be like that of Korea. If that means tens of thousands of troops sitting on the border, we should all know that, lay it out for the Congress, vote on it and move on. Otherwise if our objective is eventual withdraw than like it or not those forces we are fighting, whoever they are, will wait us out no matter when we leave.

Frankly I don’t think anyone is ready for a sustained presence of fifty to a hundred thousand troops in Iraq. We could probably pull off twenty or thirty spread out in Saudi Arabia etc. but that kind of presence is only going to serve to bolster the enemy anyway. bin Laden’s main recruiting tool was our presence in the Middle East to begin with.