How much play do you think a speech by a US Senator, even a prominent one, will get in Iraq? How much influence do you think it would have on any Iraqis who happen to be listening?

How likely do you think it really is that we will start to pull out of Iraq on Groundhog Day?

Kennedy is setting the partisan bar in a political struggle over American foreign policy as it will be played out by Americans, not by Iraqis. American party politics is necessarily a bargaining process. Kennedy is one of the leftiest lefties within the "effective" range, so whatever he says is unacceptable to the right, which he knows. If he said, "Next year", the kneejerk reaction would be "That's too soon". So, to get a closer-to-desirable result, he goes to an extreme. Such is the nature of political barter.

"How much for that chicken?"
"$20.00."
"What?? That scrawny thing? $8.00 for that chicken!"
"I can't possibly settle for less than $15.00. The cost of the feed alone..."
"All right, $12.00. That's my final offer."
[great show of reluctance] "Well... I need to get home, so I'll take it. You're robbing me blind..."

Later, he shows his wife what he got for the chicken, and she's delighted! "But that's two dollars more than we expected!"

And sometimes, even when you trade a cow for some beans, you get more out of the beanstalk than you thought you would.