Ten Years

One would like to think that Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky's report on her trip to Iraq would finally change, at long last, the terms of the debate on Iraq—meaning, of course, that we could talk about it in honest terms—but I'm sure it won't. I'm sure that, in spite of her description of meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and being told that there is "not going to be political reconciliation by next September" though the exact rationale behind Teh Surge was to "buy time for that political progress" which evidently isn't going to happen (duh), and in spite of Petraeus telling her "it could take another decade before real stability is at hand," we're still going to talk about the war as if six weeks or six months or six Friedman units is going to make some kind of damn difference.

But we should be talking about the reality that Bush is trying to stretch this shit out to January 2009, and the military commander in Iraq is talking a decade.

Schakowsky said she jotted down Petraeus's words in a small white notebook she had brought along to record her impressions. Her neat, looping handwriting filled page after page, and she flipped through to find the Petraeus section. " 'We will be in Iraq in some way for nine to 10 years,' " Schakowsky read carefully. She had added her own translation: "Keep the train running for a few months, and then stretch it out. Just enough progress to justify more time."

Just enough progress to justify more time.

For the next ten years.