Don't Tie the Next President's Hands

?President Bush is discussing a new agreement with Baghdad that would govern the deployment of American troops in Iraq....Formal negotiations won't start until February and few details are known, but already the two sides are laying down markers. The Iraqi defense minister, Abdul Qadir ? apparently tone-deaf to the American political debate ? told The Times's Thom Shanker that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012 or be able to defend its own borders from external threat at least until 2018.? (Free Reg. Req.) No matter really, it's not as if the next one will do anything substantially different with hands loose anyway.