Okay, this one could easily fizzle out and prove nothing at all, but to hear what at least appears to be a set goal from the new US Commander in Iraq is damn encouraging. Emphasis added.

“I would say that at the end of 2007, we really have to have made enough progress here we start to have the Iraqis in the lead, we move to the periphery and we start taking a very hard look at reducing our forces over here in Iraq,” Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno told the American Forces Network in an interview aired Tuesday.

Now the reason I emphasized that bit was to point out that it IS a requirement. It’s not a soft and billowy “hopefully we’ll make some progress.” Here we have the guy saying that at the end of the year, our progress is not a nicety, it’s a requirement. For the first time, we’re hearing a hint of an endgame from an official voice.
It’s also a timetable, if I’m not mistaken. I wonder what the ol’ Commander in Chief is going to think of that.