[El Blanco]

I do think a phased withdrawl is probably the best idea, but I'm edgy about setting a solid timetable. The insurgents would know that they can just hang loose, build their resources and drop the hammer on the fledgling Iraqi forces as soon as our guys leave.

Think the opposite of what we saw with the election. They went full out up until the day it happened, almost immediatly since then, we've seen a dramatic drop in their overall actiity (aside from spurts here and there). Its why we couldn't postpone it.