Tea Leaves

I'm not all that good as a reader of tea leaves, but I find myself wondering if the statements lately by the the Bushster and Dickman are intended to lay the groundwork for later saying that of course this thing in Iraq is going to take years, if not longer; everyone knows that, we've been saying it forever. And of course its not possible to have a time table, because that would imply that we control that environment, whereas everyone knows we're just there as advisors. And cannon fodder.