FU

In anti-war blog parlance, an FU, or Friedman Unit, is six months, so-called because New York Times columnist and Iraq war cheerleader Tom Friedman was in the habit of predicting a dramatic turnaround in the war in another six months, or one FU. It seems the FU has another use as well.

Matt Sludge, and the NYT were earlier flogging a story about Bush planning to pull a bunch of troops out in an FU or so. This was a deliberate leak by the WH of course, not that they would ever do anything to hint at our weakness to the enemy.
Glen Greenwald, who has a longer memory than your typical MSM editor (~1 FU vs. 0.001 FU for a TV talking head), has remembered a bit of the past:

The Hill, May 3, 2006:

The withdrawal of 20,000-40,000 U.S. troops from Iraq this fall would greatly help Republican chances ...

Newsday, December 18, 2005:
Trying to buy time with a public impatient over Iraq, President George W. Bush has repeatedly railed against the dangers of setting an "artificial timetable" for bringing home U.S. troops.

Yet the White House has signaled that it does have a timetable - all but saying that troops are likely to start pulling out of Iraq in 2006, possibly enough to cut the U.S. presence there in half,

And earlier in 2005, and in 2004, and in 2003.

And so it goes.*

*Remembering Kurt Vonnegut.

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