This clears matters up:
President Bush said Wednesday he understands the desire of U.S. coalition partners to withdraw troops from Iraq, but he declined to set a timetable for bringing American forces home and said he hoped others would also stay the course.
“Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending herself,” Bush told reporters.
In other words, “not anytime soon.”
Presumably if when some sort of stable Iraqi government is erected, we’ll be able to reduce the American force down somewhere below the 100,000 troop level. But irrespective of Iraq’s ability to “defend herself,” we’re going to have bases and troops there for years to come. We’re sure as heck not going to leave American assets and oil interests up to the custodianship and good graces of our freedom-loving Iraqi hosts.