August 22, 2005:

Here's one of my favorite lines yet: 'Setting a timetable to withdraw troops would send the wrong signal to the insurgency; then, they would just wait us out before attacking.'

Hmmm. So...what you're saying is that if we set a timetable for oh, let's say December 2006, the insurgents would stop attacking? So we could train Iraqi troops and take a little more time on the Iraqi Constitution, and all with relative calm? An absence of bombs? The Iraqis could go about their lives, go on with their government planning, go on with their street and school and hospital repairs without constant bloodshed and fear of explosions...and then, when our date rolled around, we could leave, and the now-organized and trained Iraqis would take up the fight with the insurgents, who would have graciously waited for our date? Is this really your argument?

Okay, answer me this:

1. Why would this be a bad thing?

2. If this is true, what is the alternative? Don't set a timetable; continue with American and Iraqi casualties daily, let the American public and the world panic because nobody sees any real change or progress, continue to let the US Generals contradict the White House's assurances that everything is hunky dory, watch the Iraq nation slide into civil war.

Well, I certainly can see why one would choose the latter! Um....no, I can't, actually."

—A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Daily Dyslogic, August 22, 2005

April 12, 2007:

It has become a standard part of George W. Bush’s litany for why he will veto a congressional plan for setting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq: 'Why would you say to the enemy, ‘Here’s a timetable. Just go ahead and wait us out?'

Well, there’s a logical answer to Bush’s rhetorical question. If a timetable encourages Iraqi insurgents to silence their guns and to stop planting roadside bombs – even temporarily to wait the Americans out – Iraq might get the breathing space it needs to begin healing its sectarian divisions."

—Robert Parry, Iraq & the Logic of Timetables, April 12, 2007

Okay? Can I please get a Boo-yah up in here? Allright, then. But don't feel bad, Señor Parry. I mean, you broke all those stories on that little "Iran-Contra" thingie or whatever it was called. As well as that "Kosovo" fluff and the whole "Sun Myung Moon" whatchamahooze. So...use some of those donations you're rakin' in and pay me to design your site! Damn. That whole Battleship motif just makes me sad.

UPDATE April 25, 2007: Parry, fresh from reading Nez's post, brushes up the argument on his more famouser blog, thus insuring my cleverness goes unnoticed in the gray shadow of his noteriety! OOOH, Parry you devil!