Iraq forever

UPDATE: ABCNews has scrubbed this article from its site. No explanation as to why.

This is an interesting contrast. Last week, Bush administration was floating talk of a drawdown. Then, there was the bizarre shift to the "like Korea" idea.

Now, the military commanders in Iraq offer their ideas.

But that does not imply an immediate drawdown. Officials tell ABC's Martha Raddatz the senior commanders in Iraq -- Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno and Gen. David Petraeus -- want the surge to continue until at least December, and expect to report enough progress by September to justify the extension....

Plan one, which officials say is being pushed by Odierno, calls for a reduction in troops from roughly 150,000 today to 100,000 by December of 2008.

Petreaus champions a slightly different approach that would be to cut the troops down to roughly 130,000 by the end of 2008, with further reductions the following year.

The administration is floundering for what comes next. Shouldn't they have been already known that before "the surge" began?

You could make the argument that they're simply responding to the facts on the ground, but shouldn't the contingencies have already been planned?

Are we again at the point where nobody planned for failure?