Dear Left Hand... Yours truly, Right Hand

[Defense Secretary nominee] Gates was noncommittal on questions about whether and when to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal. / "It depends on the conditions on the ground under which troops were withdrawn," he said, adding that he was not yet knowledgeable enough about conditions in Iraq to offer an opinion on how a troop withdrawal would affect the sectarian violence. ... / Asked later whether announcing a specific troop withdrawal timetable would send a signal of U.S. weakness, Gates said it "would essentially tell (the insurgents) how long they have to wait until we're gone." [link]

vs.

The U.S. military expects all of Iraq to be under the control of Iraqi forces by mid-2007, the top American military spokesman in the country said Tuesday. / "We would expect to see the entire country having reached provincial Iraqi control by early fall of next year," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference. "We should see the complete transfer of command and control of all Iraqi army divisions by late spring, early summer." / He said this is part of an accelerated timetable discussed by President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during their summit in Jordan last week. [link]