I’ve been anticipating the White House explanation for the coming draw-down in U.S. forces in Iraq. How would the administration, in all their pride and arrogance, deal with the hints that this new strategy is a capitulation to the growing demands to draw this military debacle to its appropriate conclusion?
The drums for Afghanistan are beating louder every day as the violence continues to climb in this forgotten war. Furthermore, the Iraqi refusal to establish an agreement for a long-term U.S. military presence was nothing less than an embarrassing slap in the face for the Bush administration. Glorious, indeed, wasn’t it – reading those headlines?
And just this weekend, as Obama traverses foreign lands, Der Spiegel is reporting Maliki agrees with the Democratic presidential nominee’s plan for withdrawal. Gasp! (UPDATE: Maliki’s spokesman is saying Der Spiegel misinterpreted Maliki’s statements, according to MSNBC. UPDATE: haha. ThinkProgress is reporting the Bush administration has pressured the Iraqi government to “walk back” on the statements made in the Der Spiegel interview, the translator worked for Maliki, not Der Spiegel AND the NYTIMES obtained a recording of the interview and supports the original interpretation).
Perhaps this recent period of political bassackwardness and insanity under W. will soon be behind us. And how does the White House present the surprising injection of reason in their policy?
Of course, they present it as a new strategy of their own formulation, complete with their own semantic flavor – amusing to boot. This morning, as I watched the airing of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s exclusive interview with CNN bear Wolf Blitzer, it was clear the administration has finally embraced a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. But she didn’t call it “timetable.”
No, Bush cronies would never use that liberal cuss word “timetable”, so those clever little word smiths introduced their new phrase for future troop reduction and it’s a beaut if I do say so myself: ASPIRATIONAL TIME HORIZON.
Not timetable. Aspirational Time Horizon. I couldn’t have come up with a better phrase myself if you’d given me a month and an unlimited supply of pinot grigio. And I am kickass at Family Fued.
So, I hope you will enjoy, as I will and as the flame of the W. Bush presidency is wonderfully extinguished, one of last sieges of megalomania from our executive branch.
And one more time for shits and giggles: Aspirational Time Horizon. It just rolls of the tongue!
