The Obama Plan in Iraq: Today's Speech

President Obama will announce the "withdrawal" timetable today in a speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He'll announce that all combat troops will be out of Iraq within 19 months.

That is not news. What we will be looking for is, first, an indication of how quickly within the 19 months troops will be withdrawn: the spin from the US military is that few of the soldiers will come out of Iraq before national elections in December 2009.

More importantly, we'll be searching for an announcement of how many US troops, as "support" units, will be based in Iraq after the end of 2010. While media such as CNN have been distracted by the "19-month" headline, Congressional leaders such as the top Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid, are raising questions about the long-term US presence in Iraq.