No Exit

This time around, at least, there's a bit of pushback.

The Coverage

Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks write in The Washington Post: "Asked repeatedly yesterday what 'conditions' he is looking for to begin substantial U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after this summer's scheduled drawdown, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said he will know them when he sees them. For frustrated lawmakers, it was not enough.

"'A year ago, the president said we couldn't withdraw because there was too much violence,' said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). 'Now he says we can't afford to withdraw because violence is down.' Asked Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.): 'Where do we go from here?'

"Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: 'I think people want a sense of what the end is going to look like.'

"But the bottom line was that there was no bottom line. . . .

"In eight hours of testimony, the two men danced around the question of what constitutes success in Iraq. 'As I've explained, again, from a military perspective,' Petraeus said wearily as the day drew to a close, ' . . . what we want to do is to look at conditions and determine where it is without taking undue risks. This is all about risk.'

"'We'll look at the circumstances and assess,' Crocker said, as he and Petraeus spoke of 'battlefield geometry' and 'political-military calculus.'"

Petraeus announced that his plan -- which has already won Bush's approval -- calls for a reversal of last year's troop buildup, followed by a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" in July, followed by an indefinite period of assessment before any further drawdown.

Peter Baker and Jonathan Weisman write in The Washington Post that such a plan means "all but guaranteeing that about 140,000 troops will remain at least through the fall presidential election. . . .

"[T]he 45-day consolidation period would last until early September. Petraeus repeatedly declined to say how long he would then need to decide whether to bring more troops out, but he would be deliberating in the weeks before Election Day.

"Because it takes a couple of months to withdraw a combat unit once a decision is made, Petraeus's plan means no further significant troop drawdown would take place until November, at the earliest, and yesterday's testimony fueled suspicions about whether any major pullouts would happen during the remainder of Bush's presidency."

Ken Fireman and Kristin Jensen write for Bloomberg: "Voters will choose a new U.S. president in November with as many as 140,000 American troops still in Iraq and no clear plan for extricating them from the unpopular conflict."