Bush's Unofficial Iraq Timeline

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and other Republicans have stated that they plan to wait until the end of August 2007 to make a decision regarding their support of Bush's new "surge" strategy in Iraq. General Petraeus met with the Republican Caucus (and maybe the Democrats too) earlier this year and, according to NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, told them that the "surge" should be successful by August. She reported that the moderate members at the meeting told Petraeus that if there wasn't significant progress by then they would advocate troop withdrawal.

On March 29, 2007, Collins released a statement that included her view: "If this new strategy does not demonstrate significant results by the fall, then Congress should consider all options including a redefinition of our mission and a gradual but significant withdrawal of our troops next year."

Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-Oregon) like Collins has spoken out publicly against the Iraq war. The Congressional Quarterly reported that he and other Republican senators that he had spoken to but refused "to out" have indicated that they might be reevaluating their current support in August 2007.

The President himself said in Grand Rapids last week (4/20/07):
"General Petraeus has been carrying out this new strategy for just over two months. He reports that it will be later this year before we can judge the potential of success. … Since the security operation began, we have seen some of the highest casualty levels of the war. And as the number of troops in Baghdad grows and operations move into even more dangerous neighborhoods, we can expect the pattern to continue. We must also expect the terrorists and insurgents to continue mounting terrible attacks."

And today (4/23/07) in regards in the timeline issue :
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you start to plan withdrawing. If we were to do so, the enemy would simply mark their calendars and begin plotting how to take over a country when we leave."

However, isn't publicly discussing when Republicans plan to reevaluate the "surge" telling the "enemy" that they only have to put the pressure on our troops until August and if they are successful enough to make the "surge" look like a failure then we will leave?

Hasn't the President effectively endorsed an informal timeline? Isn't it essentially the same thing as signing a bill that contains a timeline?

Maybe he doesn't understand that the leaders of the forces that our troops are fighting in Iraq have access to the same internet that we have. They don't need signed legislation to determine their strategy for getting us out of Iraq.