Keep Those Goalposts Moving
When Bush says no timetables, he MEANS no timetables or any of its variants: no benchmarks, no goals, no progress reports, no hope:
The Bush administration will not try to assess whether the troop increase in Iraq is producing signs of political progress or greater security until September, and many of Mr. Bush's top advisers now anticipate that any gains by then will be limited, according to senior administration officials.In interviews over the past week, the officials made clear that the White House is gradually scaling back its expectations for the government of President Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The timelines they are now discussing suggest that the White House may maintain the increased numbers of American troops in Iraq well into next year.
This is just more evidence that the surge is nothing more than a cynical delaying tactic, a get-out-of-jail-free card for the Worst President Ever. Come September when the check is due, the shrubster will just smirk and say "um, yeah, about that. I know Eye-rack is an ungodly fuck-up, but as you can see there is a presidential campaign going on. It's going to be up to the next president to unshit my bed. Ain't my problem no more, Heh-heh-heh-heh!"
A poster on Kevin Drum's blog said it perfectly: if the term FUBAR hasn't been invented, we'd need to think up another word to describe Eye-Rack and the Bush administration in general. Yet, we have to live in a free world that has a leader that defines success as never having to admit he is wrong.