Bush and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani reiterated today that there will no timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal (whatever happened to the very quaint phrase “coalition troops”?) from Iraq. Reuters:

“We will set no timetable for withdrawal, Mr. President. A timetable will help the terrorists, will encourage them that they could defeat the superpower of the world and the Iraqi people,” Talabani said in remarks that aligned him with Bush’s often-stated view that a timetable for withdrawal would embolden the insurgency in Iraq.

This puts them in step with less than 10 percent of Floridians, according to a poll that appeared yesterday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That paper, based in Sarasota (read: retirees), and the Florida Times-Union, based in Jacksonville (read: navy town), conducted the research.

Only 8 percent said troops should remain until “whenever the job is done.” Twenty-four percent said the withdrawal should come within six months, 25 percent said within one year and 23 percent said within two years. The rest were unsure.

P.S. More evidence that something bad has happened to Bush’s brain (his real one, and maybe Rove as well). When asked about Syria’s role in Iraq, here’s what the president, who will attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week, said:

“And this is a subject of conversation, of course, I’ll have with allies in places like New York and on the other times I communicate with our allies: that Syria must be a focus of getting them to change their behavior, particularly as it regards to democracy and trying to prevent democracies from emerging,” he said.

Just this side of incoherent, don’t you think?

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