"A year ago, President Bush addressed the nation and assured Americans that our commitment in Iraq is not open-ended.  Yet today, we appear to be no closer to bringing our troops home than we were a year ago, or a year before that.

"Dramatically increasing U.S. troop levels in Iraq was supposed to set the stage for the political reconciliation necessary to knit Iraq back into one piece.  But a year later, the president's key benchmarks have not been met. We haven't seen provincial elections, a serious oil-revenue sharing law, any new de-Baathification laws or even crucial constitutional reforms.

"Instead of getting serious about the challenges facing this country, the Bush administration is hunkering down for its last year in office intent on leaving the problem of withdrawal from Iraq to the next president."