Dates Certain for Iraq Withdrawal

Deadlines for American troops to leave were set today with a near-unanimous Iraqi Cabinet vote that requires coalition forces to withdraw from cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011 with no ifs, ands or buts.

As late as Friday, Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr was calling for armed resistance against a continued US presence in Iraq, and there will undoubtedly be sectarian jockeying before the full parliament approves today's decision, but it lays out timetables that an Obama Administration will have as a framework for its own decisions about starting to draw down the 150,000 troops still there.

Meanwhile, the American death toll in George W. Bush's war has passed 4200 and will continue well after he leaves the White House, but at least the end is in sight.