Yesterday, when it leaked that President Obama will put forward a plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in 19 months, I figured antiwar activists wouldn’t really mind that his new plan would take three months longer than the one he proposed on the campaign trail. My friend Greg Sargent at the Plum Line did the legwork, and sure enough:

MoveOn’s national campaign director, Nita Chaudhay, tells me that the group won’t make an issue of the delay, which apparently is meant to appease military commanders, because they’re thrilled that he’s sticking by a time-line.

“The bottom line is that our members, and Americans everywhere, are so incredibly pleased to have a president who’s finally putting in place a concrete plan to end this war,” Chaudhary says. “Do we wish they could come home sooner? Of course we do. At the same time, there’s a date certain for this war to be over.”

“The fact that the President is sticking with a time-line that is at least close to the one he announced during the campaign is a good thing,” adds Tom Andrews, a former Congressman who is national director of the Win Without War coalition. “He was under tremendous pressure to back off of a time-line.”

I think Greg means Nina Nita Chaudhary from MoveOn, who — interesting fact — was in my high school graduating class. True story.

Update: Humiliating! I misspell (or, more accurately, misname) Nita while correcting Greg! What a great day this has turned out to be.

Crossposted to The Streak.