Peter Wehner, of the Bush administration, says this about the new effort for the dems to insist on a timetable of retreat from iraq: "There is no precedent in American history for succeeding in a war when the commanders were taking battlefield direction from Members of the House and Senate. In the words of the Los Angeles Times (in an editorial titled, "Do We Really Need A Gen. Pelosi?")"

This is no change of the Bush admin. stance; no timetable, no outside (read Congressional) interference in Iraq; they've been saying it for years. The issue of when will the war be over is a vexing one, nobody knows. When will it be safe for our troops to come home? Heck, when will they come home? Everyone wants them home. But the new tactics by Congress to insist via legistlation that the troops withdraw at a certain date is not useful in fighting this war. The enemy is sitting us out, slowly ratcheting up the pressure. It's been four years of struggle, and no end is in sight. It's just like Vietnam, right?

No, here's how it's different. History has shown that a change in government in Vietnam didn't do shit. Vietnam had no strategic importance, no valuable commodity that we need. (more here on Vietnam-Iraq comparisons, esp. note the suicide attacks against civilians favored by Al Qaeda which were absent in Vietnam) Iraq does have huge stategic importance (its in the middle of the Arab world), and of course there's all that black gold, and now that Saudi Arabia is showing peak oil, we need other new sources of oil, desparately.

Then there's this: "If we retreat from Iraq, Islamic jihadists will not go gently into the good night." (from the above article). The Vietcong will not hope on a airline and be in New York in a day, to blow up...whatever. Al Qaeda has already shown that it's willing and able to attack U.S. soil with huge casualties. Now they are using chemical weapons in Iraq.

It's not scaremongering to say that either we hold them in their places, or they will be free to organize and plan and fly planes into buildings. Why aren't they doing it now, why have there not been further attacks on U.S. soil. Partially because all such attempts have been blocked. Further, Al Qaeda is very busy in Iraq. Additionally, its quite hard to find the great source of destruction that is plentiful in Iraq: artillery munitions.