Forget pretty words, just get troop pullout done

By the time President George W. Bush leaves office we could have a whole new lexicon in the English language, one rife with fractured phrases and colorful clichés.

One of the more recent linguistic liberties taken by the nation's chief executive and sometimes wordsmith has to be "time horizon" for the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. This after he has hinted recently he's open to "aspirational" goals for troop withdrawal.

The Earl of Euphemisms has done it again.

Last week after a video teleconference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Bush White House actually strung them together in an official statement:

In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? We think it means that Bush -- who has never been able to bring himself to say or commit to "timetable for bringing our troops home" -- has resorted to his skills with the English language to cloud an exit strategy in a fog of euphemistic rhetoric. Well, it's not exactly a strategy yet, but it does give some ray of hope that perhaps one is in the offing.

Bush has long maintained that timetables are artificial and only strengthen the terrorists' resolve to hold out until the U.S. is out of Iraq. But in recent weeks, he and senior officials have said they would be open to "aspirational" goals for removing U.S. troops, as Maliki and other Iraqi politicians have voiced increasing discontent with the idea of an open-ended American troop presence in their country.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has the new developments pegged:

The president, Biden said, "has reversed course and dropped his adamant opposition to a timeline for redeployment of American troops from Iraq," and now the administration "is finally facing reality."

Sadiq Rikabi, a senior political adviser to Maliki, said in an interview that the Iraqi government wants specific timelines governing different stages of what will eventually become a full U.S. withdrawal of combat forces.

Sounds like an exit strategy to us, euphemistically speaking.

All things considered, we'd remind the president of another of his favorite clichés on the subject of Iraq taking more responsibility for its own security: "We'll stand down when they stand up."

Now for a time frame to accomplish both.

Bickering over the awful langauge aside, let's just get it done.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.

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