E. J. Dionne Jr., in his column in today's Post discusses the "challenge to figure out the right timetable for withdrawal, [and] whether a residual force should be left there and which American objectives can still be salvaged." He states:
yesterday, the Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, released its own plan for a much more rapid withdrawal. The center's plan would have all American troops out of Iraq before the end of 2008, except for a force of 8,000 to 10,000 in the Kurdish area for an additional year. The United States owes a serious commitment to the Kurds, both for historical reasons and for the help they have given America in this conflict.
Their website which discusses the report can be found here. This site has references to both the complete report, and to a short summary of the report.
As they point out, the current Iraq strategy, call it the "Bush Plan," is "exactly what Al Qaeda wants, the United States distracted and pinned down by Iraq?s internal conflicts and trapped in a quagmire that has become the perfect rallying cry and recruitment tool for Al Qaeda."
Their plan is a serious attempt to describe a way out of the mess Bush has gotten us in. It is a tragedy that no one in the Bush administration is likely to read the plan, or consider the ideas it discusses.