Dueling Headlines About Bringing the Boys Home

From the LA Times:

Iraq Contingent May Grow if Attacks Persist, Pace Says

From Bloomberg:

Joint Chiefs Leader Says Iraqi Forces Will Replace U.S. Troops

Both refer to this Fox News interview with Gen. Peter Pace, who talked with Chris Wallace yesterday.

What's it gonna be? My money's on what Jonathan Rauch said on Reason Online earlier this month after talking with Ohio State political scientist and occasional Reason contributor John Mueller:

by spring, if not earlier, Bush will announce that progress in Iraq allows U.S. forces to start coming home. He will say that an American drawdown is the best way to help the Iraqis stand on their own. He will argue, much as he did with his tax cuts, that whatever pace he sets is precisely the right pace, and that withdrawing any faster or slower would be the height of irresponsibility. He may also say that withdrawing is "not a formula for getting out of [the region], but one that provided the only sound basis for America's staying in and continuing to play a responsible role."

Those were the words of Richard Nixon, who, somewhere, is wanly smiling.

Rauch's whole argument on "why the pullout has begun" (whether Bush realizes it or not) here.