Iraq - One Downside of an Exit Date

Yes, I want us out of Iraq. The sooner the better. But it seems to me that there is one downside to a fixed exit date that could be summed up in a very old question: "Do you want to be the last person to die in [fill in the blank]?"

I know that soldiers fight to save themselves and their comrades but, surely, from this day forward, and each day that we get closer to that exit date, they can't not be thinking "how do I stay alive until x"? (Obviously the same problem exists for tours of duties that have specific end dates, but this exit strategy must certainly add to the effect.)

Fighting to stay alive is both rational and normal in any war, but when you're told that your country not only wants to leave the field of battle but plans to leave by a fixed date, the nature of the conflict, psychologically, must change, mustn't it?

Just a thought.