Those Washington warmongers just don't give up, do they?

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that it "makes sense" to have a pause in troop reductions in July. In other words, the military is going to discontinue bringing troops home for ... well, they don't know how long:

Gates made his comments after meeting with the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, who recently said he would recommend a "pause" in withdrawals after 22,000 U.S. troops return home.

"A period of brief consolidation probably does make sense," Gates said. He did not indicate how long the pause would last or what would happen after that.

[...]

A senior U.S. military official in Baghdad told CNN recently that Petraeus feels strongly there should be a period of review before he makes any decisions about additional troop withdrawals.

The official said there is "no determined length" of the pause, but Petraeus wants to "let the dust settle" from the first round of reductions so he can assess the security situation. The already-announced reductions will result in about 22,000 troops returning to their home bases.

"We expect there will be additional troop reductions," the official added, but the pause means Petraeus is not ready to say when they will be -- or even when he will make his recommendations about future reductions.

Well, of course Petraeus would say that. He's had a hard-on for war for years. Petraeus' hardline stance (no, I don't know how wide it is, and I'd rather not think about it) is the very reason he's ruining the show in Iraq.

Did I say "ruining?" I meant "running." Oh well, it works either way ...

Let's see ... the "pause" in the "drawdown" after the "surge" will begin in July ... four months before the "presidential election" in which "Huggy Bear" advocates "a hundred years" of war in Iraq. Maybe I need to adjust my tin-foil hat, but the timing is, well, interesting.