{"id":1853,"date":"2008-08-23T16:22:16","date_gmt":"2008-08-23T16:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2008-08-23T16:23:14","modified_gmt":"2008-08-23T16:23:14","slug":"timetables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1853","title":{"rendered":"Timetables"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like an agreement is close between the Iraqi government and the US government on a schedule for ramping down the US military presence in Iraq – a timetable. Many of the antiwar folks who have been pressing for the US government to announce such a timetable have been – to use a charitable term – crowing, including my grudgingly approved candidate, Senator Obama<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I am glad that the administration has finally shifted to accepting a timetable for the removal of our combat troops from Iraq…”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The difference, of course, is between a timetable that we unilaterally impose regardless of the desires of the Iraqis and the conditions on the ground, and a timetable that is arrived at as a consequence of agreement between our government and the Iraqi one. It seems to me such an obvious thing, and yet no one else seems to be raising it.<\/p>\n

Kevin Drum has a good cautionary comment<\/a>, and links to another good one<\/a> from Megan McArdle.<\/p>\n

From the Las Vegas Sun, here’s a nice snapshot of the complex bundle of issues that the war represents<\/a> in this election:<\/p>\n

By 2006, however, as the war continued to rage, the public had lost patience. On Election Day, voters punished Republicans across the country for mismanaging the conflict.<\/p>\n

\nOverjoyed, Democrats believed their time had come to ride the wave. They opened the 2008 campaigns brimming with confidence that the war would propel their candidates into the White House and Congress.<\/p>\n

\nBut now, with just 11 weeks remaining in the campaigns, that assumption is being tested.<\/p>\n

\nInterviews with 20 voters this week found the war has evolved into a much more complicated issue than in the past two elections.<\/p>\n

\nMany voters said they think the war was a bad idea, which is consistent with findings of national polls. But with the war no longer front and center in the national consciousness, the interviews suggested the issue is no longer an automatic boost for Democrats.<\/p>\n

\nInstead, the war is at times cutting against stereotype.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are timetables and there are timetables…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}