The Senate is going to take up, among other things, an amendment from Carl Levin today that would have the Secretary of Defense “commence the reduction of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

Here’s Mitch McConnell on the amendment a few minutes ago:

The supposedly groundbreaking policy shift that the Democratic Majority has been circling around is nothing more than a page and a half of vague policy proposals — an empty shell.
Do they really expect us to send this to Conference and to just see what happens? That’s wise war policy? That’s a responsible alternative to the current policy?
That’s the alternative they give us to the Petraeus Plan, a doctrine that’s been widely acclaimed as the last word on counterinsurgency and which is showing signs of success less than a month after it was fully manned?

He added:

Yesterday the spokesman for the multi-national forces in Iraq gave us an update on Al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq. He reminded us that Al-Qaeda members refer to Iraq as their central front. And he told us Al-Qaeda and its affiliates are the greatest source of the spectacular attacks that are fueling sectarian violence in Iraq.
He told us that in recent months more and more Iraqis have started to reject Al-Qaeda and its ideology and are finally fighting back. The troops are getting good, actionable intelligence from these people, which they’re using to disrupt Al-Qaeda networks and safe havens in and around Baghdad.
He showed us a chart that illustrated some of our recent successes against the enemy. Our armed forces in Iraq killed or captured 26 high-level Al-Qaeda leaders in May and June alone. Eleven of them were emirs who were city or local Al-Qaeda leaders; seven were smuggling foreigners, weapons, and money into Iraq; five were cell leaders, and three were leaders of IED networks.
Last month our troops uncovered an Al-Qaeda media hub near Samarra. They have concluded that between 80 percent and 90 percent of suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by foreign born terrorists, who’ve killed some 4,000 Iraqi citizens just over the last six months.
These are some of the concrete realities on the ground. We’re fighting Al-Qaeda head on, and we’re making progress. Would the Levin Amendment force us to turn our backs on Al-Qaeda again?
We have no idea. It doesn’t say.
But it could.
And that’s something we should all keep in mind as we begin this debate, whether we’re willing to go with this or with the Petraeus Plan.