Then again, reality ain't all it's cracked up to be

I need a little help here. Because either my grip on reality, tenuous at the best of times, is slipping more than usual - or someone else's has. This is from the New York Times for April 29:

For the 150,000 American troops in Iraq, the new government brings reassurance in the statements by Dr. Jaafari and other Shiite leaders about the Americans' role. The Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or Sciri, were fiercely anti-American during their exile years under Mr. Hussein, and Dawa was implicated by American intelligence in terrorist acts across the Middle East, including a 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Kuwait.

But Dr. Jaafari and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the Sciri leader, have said Iraq will need American forces until its new army and paramilitary police can take over the war. Many in the new government admit that this could take until well into the mandate of the permanent government due to take office early next year, even longer.

Okay - so the reality is they're suggesting that they may want US troops to stay for quite some time, maybe years, an assessment privately echoed by US military planners, who

offered cautions about recent predictions that the United States could significantly reduce its forces from the current 142,000 within a year,

the Boston Globe reported a week earlier.

But will someone please explain to me just what the hell those troops are supposed to find "reassuring" about that?