OK. They Were Right.

Over the past few months, Atrios has been keeping track of dates by which we have been told that a drawdown would occur, or victory would occur, etc. Today he linked to one I found particularly interesting:

AMMAN, Jordan – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday that his country’s forces would be able to assume security command by June 2007 — which could allow the United States to start withdrawing its troops.

“I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007,” Maliki told ABC television after meeting President Bush on Thursday in Jordan.

That was last November. And its certainly not the first time Iraqi forces were going to be taking over. I believe that was a few years ago.

But Atrios has had a lot of these quotes in the last few months. Apparently he writes them down on his calendar and then waits for the date to arrive. (He must have a big calendar.) Folks like Petraeus, George Casey, various Republican congresscritters, etc. Always promising either a drawdown, a victory, a winning lotto ticket, signs of success, or whatever, in six months. (Or, as Atrios calls it, in a Friedman.) And when the Friedman passes, nothing. Why can’t we just take these people at their word? Just once. Let’s pretend that Maliki and the rest of them were right even just once, and bring the troops home.