Reply #9: As for "See you in September"

[gratuitous]

There's been a lot of chatter, which is already morphing, about September being a real make-or-break time for Iraq. And of course, there will be no more positive news in September than there is now in May, so some of the smarter Republicans are already hedging and using slippery language about September, maybe October, surely by the first of the year.

What I'd like to see the Democrats do is every time one of these weasels talks about how glorious it's all gonna be in Iraq come September, is challenge them: What will constitute this "turnaround"? What objective, measurable features will be progress? Answer now, not four months from now, because you just know that if there's 17 more seconds of electrical power a day supplied to four homes in Baghdad, that will be trumpeted as irrefutable proof that the surge worked, and screw all you nay-sayers.

Put them on record -- now -- for what they expect to see happen come September. What will they call "success" and define it now.