Just when the polls show that people want the troops out of Iraq, a story like this one is miraculously reported. It works in America, and it works in Britain too.
British troops could leave Iraq by the end of next year, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Sunday.
“We don’t want British forces forever in Iraq. Within one year — I think at the end of 2006 — Iraqi troops will be ready to replace British forces in the South,” Talabani told ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby program.
Talabani also said, however, that an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces would be a “catastrophe” for Iraq and would lead to civil war.
The press and the left desperately want a timeline, or simply a date as to when coalition troops will leave Iraq and come home. Yet we know that a pre-announcement of troop withdrawal will only help the terrorists. So, instead of sticking to our guns and stating that the war will be over when we say it’s over, we draw straws and let the winner be the source for a story of false hope.
And you know what? It works.
This story will satisfy the press for another couple of months, when they’ll demand yet another timetable. The U.S. and our Allies will easily find another General, or official somewhere who will be willing to stand up and throw out another date.
Come late January, I’ll expect to read another one of these stories.