Blogoland

Elsewhere on TNR, Lawrence Kaplan makes an interesting point about Iraq and the silly debate on our being there:

In a steely show of resolve, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declared, "Withdrawal is not an option." But it is an option, and one that the Bush administration, for all of its testimonials to American resolve, has settled upon. The administration is already "moving in the direction of downsizing our forces," as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad puts it, having cut troop levels to 127,000 with another reduction of 6,000 announced even as GOP senators thundered about the consequences of drawing down. The Pentagon would like to get that number down to 100,000 by the end of this year, and toward zero by the end of next. So don't listen to the senators. They're talking to themselves.

Now, that's a pretty interesting. Background here.