Why keep vacillating back and forth regarding troop pesence in Iraq? Do they even talk to each other?

They are trying to sit on the fence between appeasing the majority of Americans and not actually committing to pulling troops out of Iraq. Since most Americans want the troops to start coming home, a token 5,000 with a possible bring home the surge soldiers by next summer semi-promise (based on the progress in Iraq which is naturally essed by the military) will hopefully appease us. This fence is razor sharp though so it is hard to say the exact right thing. Thus, the vacillating.