Biden Editorial in WP: "Time for an Iraq Timetable."

[Sparkly]

The question most Americans want answered about Iraq is this: When will our troops come home?

We already know the likely answer. In 2006, they will begin to leave in large numbers. By the end of the year, we will have redeployed about 50,000. In 2007, a significant number of the remaining 100,000 will follow. A small force will stay behind -- in Iraq or across the border -- to strike at any concentration of terrorists.

That is because we cannot sustain 150,000 Americans in Iraq without extending deployment times, sending soldiers on fourth and fifth tours, or mobilizing the National Guard. Even if we could, our large military presence -- while still the only guarantor against a total breakdown -- is increasingly counterproductive. A liberation has become an occupation.

There is another critical question: As our soldiers redeploy, will our security interests in Iraq remain intact or will we have traded a dictator for chaos?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/25/AR2005112500864.html

Looks like they're all coming out of the woodwork now. I think the polls have created a bandwagon -- it's a good bandwagon, if a little late. (But I still hope Biden doesn't run for prez!)

[I_am_Spartacus]

1. Nixon reduced Vietnam deployment from over 500k to 168k

to reduce objections at home, but then he stepped up the carpet bombings, and extended the war to Cambodia and (was it?) Laos.

Nixon actually reduced the troops but increased the war.

Make sure that the Democratic plan you support includes an argument for ending the occupation, and the war, and argues that Iraq should be for Iraqis to profit from.

[tabasco]

2. Excellent observation.

Let us learn from Vietnam rather than repeat it.

[Donna Zen]

3. I hope that Biden's exit from Sunday mornings

...is included in that time table.