John McCain is the real victim of Bush's rhetorical moonwalk. After yoking himself to the president's stay-the-course policy and musing that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for a century, he finds himself virtually alone in advocating what is now an extremist position.
Timelines in the Sand
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, July 22, 2008; A21
It's not a "timetable" for extricating U.S troops from Iraq that George W. Bush is suddenly talking about, and heaven help anyone who accuses him of proposing a "timeline." No, the Decider says he is now amenable to a "time horizon," which apparently is a whole different kind of time thing -- not at all like the sensible course of action that Democrats and other critics of the Iraq occupation have been demanding.
If Bush were known for exquisite subtlety in his use of the language, I'd note that a horizon is, by definition, a line that can never be reached. But pigs will streak across the sky at Mach 2 before this president displays a diabolical mastery of semantics. His new "time horizon" formulation is just smoke, intended to obfuscate and stall. In six months, Iraq becomes somebody else's problem.
The shift does put loyal supporters of Bush's Iraq policy in an untenable position, though. Their mantra has been that anyone who suggests a date for U.S. withdrawal, however vague or distant or aspirational, is being "defeatist." Now, logically, they ought to be saying the same thing about the president.
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