Bush leaving office will change the situation drastically, both domestically and internationally. McCain would be a dramatic change. So would Hillary, but in a different direction. Obama would be a big change.

All three of them would draw down the troops. McCain would do it Because the current troop levels are not sustainable. He would at least have to give the troops a year or so of rest. Hillary would do it because she knows that the "surge" was a political trick by Bush so that he can put a plaque in his library saying that he didn't lose the war and in fact he was "winning" before those soft Democrats "surrendered to terror."

Obama will take recon Marines, Rangers and Special Forces out of Iraq and redeploy them into Eastern Afghanistan to hunt Osama Bin Laden. This will give the Bush family conniptions because Osama is the younger brother of their close family friends.

Whatever happens, next year this time there will be tens of thousands fewer US troops in Iraq. You can bank on it. You can bank on it because after the election the only two individuals on Earth could benefit from the high troop levels, Bush and Cheney and after the inauguration of the next President, when they have someone else to blame for the withdrawl, even they won't want so many troops in Iraq.