The Times leads with anticlimax this morning:
The [Baker Commission] never seriously considered the position that Representative John P. Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who is a leading voice on national security issues, took more than a year ago, that withdrawal should begin immediately. The group did debate timetables, especially after a proposal, backed by influential Democratic members of the commission, that a robust diplomatic strategy and better training of Iraqis be matched up with a clear schedule for withdrawal. But explicit mention of such a schedule was dropped.
Funny how a fetish of language can make an inevitability seem contingent on immediate action: "Phased withdrawal" was going to happen sooner or later because there is no such thing as a war without end.
Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn" analogy — "You break it, you own it" — always struck me as metaphorically off. Real estate seemed the better point of reference for Iraq, and in this case, we did something extraordinary: We owned with the option to lease.