President Obama goes to West Point today to lay out his new plans for Afghanistan in a prime time address to the American people, with arguments that we've all heard before.  Except it was about Iraq and a different President.

"This is not an open ended committment," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday, stressing that President Obama is not ratcheting up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan for years and years to come.

That phrase rang a bell, and it didn't take long to find a briefing by the late Tony Snow in September 2007, where reporters were pressing him about whether the mission in Iraq was exactly that.  He told reporters they were playing games.

"You absolutely understand it's a verbal game, simply because if I can't give you an absolute date, you define it as an open-ended commitment," Snow said.

In January of that year, President Bush had used the phrase in a major speech laying out why a surge was needed in Iraq:

"I have made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended," said Mr. Bush.

"This new strategy will not yield an immediate end to suicide bombings, assassinations, or IED attacks," Mr. Bush added.  I use that quote imagining that President Obama might say much the same at West Point this evening.

Look for talk today about benchmarks.  That was a catch phrase used during the heated debates over Iraq to try to make sure the Iraqi government was actually making progress, and now the same thing will be applied to the Afghan government as well.

"I think nobody should underestimate the committment of a President that has thus far doubled the number of American men and women on the ground in Afghanistan," said Gibbs, who at that point sounded like he was channeling Tony Snow from a few years ago.

As for any revolt by Congressional Democrats - don't look for that anytime soon.

Basically, the Pentagon should have enough money in the military budget to fund extra troops going to Afghanistan through next May or June.

After that - just a few months before the elections - then the Congress will be asked to approve extra money to fund those operations.

And then, we will see if liberals are ready to back up their talk on the street, and actually use the Power of the Purse to force a change in Afghan policy.