When Up Is Down

....and left is right, and timetables are---well, you know:

Sunday, August 7:

Troop cuts in Iraq feasible - House Republican

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States might be able to remove up to 30,000 troops from Iraq by next spring as the Iraqi military gets stronger, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said on Sunday.

Separately, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Time magazine that Iraqi insurgents were losing steam as a political force even though their ability to kill and maim appeared undiminished.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" it was feasible to begin planning for U.S. troop reductions of that size even though recent deadly attacks have again raised questions about whether Washington has underestimated the Iraqi insurgency.

Reports indicate "there is a growing strong core of strength in the Iraqi military, that it's standing and fighting, that it's doing its share of the load," Hunter said.

Rice said the Iraqi insurgency was losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

And now Monday, August 8:

Pentagon Expects to Send More Iraq Troops

WASHINGTON (AP) - Anticipating a new burst of insurgent violence, the Pentagon plans to expand the U.S. force in Iraq to improve security for a planned October referendum and a December election.

Although much public attention has been focused recently on the prospect of reducing U.S. forces next spring and summer, defense officials foresee the likelihood of first increasing troop levels.

Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, noted Monday that troop levels were raised last January during Iraq's first elections, and then returned to the current level of about 138,000 several weeks later.

"It's perfectly plausible to assume we'll do the same thing for this election," he said, while stressing that no decisions had been made.

Di Rita said he did not know how many extra troops might be needed during the referendum and election period.

"The units that are there have been told to expect that," he said. "It's possible that your planned rotation dates back to the U.S. will be affected by the need to keep a higher level for a longer period of time."

Is anyone else noticing that reassuring intimations about possible withdrawals have been coming immediately after particularly deadly stretches for U.S. troops like the one last week? Then, after a bit of happy talk tamps down the public's anxiety, it's back to business as usual.

Then again, I guess Condi's claims about the insurgency "losing" in any way, shape or form probably rendered inoperative comments about withdrawal or anything else from the administration on that day. No, it wasn't quite "last throes" redux. But have we somehow not learned by now that the ultimate success of an insurgency such as this---at least as far as our involvement is concerned---is not predicated on those we are fighting actually "winning" anything?