TRUDY RUBIN ON IRAQ....

"TRUDY RUBIN ON IRAQ....Jeff Weintraub recommends that I read the Philadelphia Inquirer's Trudy Rubin, who has recently been in Iraq and has a good feel for what's happening on the ground there. So I did. And after a bit of back and forth about what our military leaders think about drawing down our forces in Iraq, here's what she says about the debate over withdrawal:

Iraqi officials from nearly all factions say they want U.S. troops drawn down within 18 months. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie wrote in the Washington Post recently that he expected most of the U.S. troops "to return home by the end of 2007."

However, neither Rubaie nor more senior Iraqi leaders want an explicit timeline. Instead, they favor a "road map" for troop reductions, that depends on achieving a set of goals for improving Iraqi security. They want dates, but dates that depend on meeting those targets.

Political Animal