I caught an article today that really made my brows pop up. Apparently President Bush is, for the first time, willing to at least consider withdrawing some troops from Iraq. Now that’s huge since until now Bush has put “withdrawal from Iraq” just below “shoot self in scrotum with nailgun” on his list of things he doesn’t want to do.

[Bush] raised the possibility during a surprise visit to a desert air base in Iraq’s Anbar province on Monday, saying there were signs of improved security and that some U.S. troops could be withdrawn from the country if the trend continued. Even though he couched his words carefully and made no promises, it was the kind of concession rarely heard from Bush, who has made single-mindedness a defining trait of his presidency and of his conduct of the unpopular war in Iraq.

First of all, the fact that the president is willing to talk about troop withdrawal is about as sad as it gets. A rational and responsible leader should be loathe to go into war and optimistic about leaving, but instead we have the reverse. But still, I suppose it’s a step forward and that’s better than sitting back.

Anbar, huh? All right, let’s take a look at that…

So Bush is using some kind of “success” in the Anbar province as evidence that his strategy is working and thanks to his bold vision we may finally be able to start scaling down troop levels. Awesome. But hold on now, ThinkProgress dug up a few things that directly contradict that assertion, including this snippet from an Associated Press report.

In truth, the progress in Anbar was initiated by the Iraqis themselves, a point Gates himself made, saying the Sunni tribes decided to fight and retake control from al-Qaida many months before Bush decided to send an extra 4,000 Marines to Anbar as part of his troop buildup.

So sending extra troops had nothing to do with the stability in Anbar. A little ironic because on one hand the Iraqi military seems to be doing jack squat, but meanwhile the militants are starting to buckle down and get some work done. Of course, that was evident early on when there’d be these big fights between militants and American forces that didn’t involve the Iraqi military for some reason, but I digress.

Our military “surge” isn’t the reason for this improvement, which is strange because according to Bush if we were to leave then the nation would get overtaken by “al Qaeda types” and the entire country would collapse into a giant lake of fire. Yet here we have a group of Sunnis who took it upon their own initiative to start driving out the unwanted “types”.

We’re not done though. Apparently while all this was going on, a whole bunch of Sunni and Shia leaders met in Northern Ireland for some secret peace talks, which pointedly did not involve the United States. Emphasis added.

The faction leaders have agreed to consult further on a series of recommendations, labelled the Helsinki agreement. The 12 points contain clear echoes of Senator George Mitchell’s principles on non-violence and democracy which paved the way towards the Good Friday Agreement. Aside from promising to resolve political differences peacefully, the agreement commits the Iraqi parties to consider the creation of a disarmament commission, and the formation of a group to deal with the legacy of Iraq’s past. They also seek an end to international and regional interference in Iraq’s affairs.

Ever had that friend who wants to help, probably sincerely, but has no idea what in the world he’s doing? Then the only way to make him leave is to quickly fix it on your own?

That’s where Iraq is with us. The tribes are fighting off the terrorists and the leaders are meeting without us in secret. While it’s true that the United States military has helped protect the Iraqis against many attacks, what we’re seeing here is that they’re trying to resolve things without involving us. Not because they want to finally stand on their own two feet and are doing so while we hold their hand, but because they simply don’t want us there any more.

Actually, hey, this is a great thing for two reasons. For one thing, it means Iraq may stabilize finally and our troops can come hom. For another thing, I can still keep bleating about how Bush’s policies were completely idiotic. I get to have my cake and eat it, too.