From The Washington Post, 11/29/05:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com

Tuesday, November 29, 2005; 12:42 PM

Brace Yourself

Bush administration officials have, in the past, wildly inflated then
backed off their estimates of Iraqi readiness.

So we can reasonably expect reporters tomorrow to try to fact-check
Bush's numbers tomorrow, not just report them as the gospel.

Fred Kaplan , writing in Slate, argues further:
http://www.slate.com/id/2131125/nav/tap2/

"Brace yourself for a mind-bog of sheer cynicism.

The discombobulation begins Wednesday, when President George W. Bush
is expected to proclaim, in a major speech at the U.S. Naval Academy,
that the Iraqi security forces -- which only a few months ago were
said to have just one battalion capable of fighting on its own -- have
suddenly made uncanny progress in combat readiness.

Expect soon after (if not during the speech itself) the thing that
Bush and Vice President ***** Cheney have, just this month, denounced
as near-treason -- a timetable for withdrawal of American troops.

"And so it appears (assuming the forecasts about the speech are true)
that the White House is as cynical about this war as its cynical
critics have charged it with being.

For several months now, many of these critics have predicted that,
once the Iraqis passed their constitution and elected a new
government, President Bush would declare his mission complete and
begin to pull out -- this, despite his public pledge to 'stay the
course' until the insurgents were defeated."

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Harry