'Pentagon Chief Talks of Further Iraq Troop Cuts: Gates Expresses Hope Despite New U.S. Report on Unmet Goals,' By Michael Abramowitz and Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, September 15, 2007; Page A01

Gates is doing his job. No surprise. There will be back and forth on this. Gates and Fallon (Centcom head) are going to want to be able to cover other bets as soon as reasonably possible.

Like I wrote in "State of the World," the right strike in Europe with NW Pakistan fingerprints on it and we may be in a different strategic dynamic very quickly. Fallon won't want to face that possibility with his assets all tied down in the surge.

So all this back and forth is normal system reset.