'Graceful exit' is unrealistic

Marc Sandalow:

Washington -- It would be reasonable to conclude after watching President Bush in the Middle East this week that the administration has no plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
"This business about graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all,'' Bush said at a news conference Thursday morning in Jordan with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Yet some experts say it would be foolhardy to assume, just because Bush said it, that the statement is true.

It's usually a safe bet that W is lying whatever he says, but in this case he may be unintentionally speaking the truth: Any exit that may or may not occur during his presidency will hardly qualify as "graceful." The time for that has long passed.