An Iraq Deadline for Bush (EJ Dionne WaPo)

[Nightwing]

Excellent read of his op-ed which clearly comes out as supportive of Murtha. Later in the article, he paints * as having lost his support among Rethugs. Enjoy!!
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<snip>

Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, noted that the Republican resolution drew heavily on the language of the Democrats' proposal. Durbin praised Sen. John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, for a speech this week arguing that the next 60 to 180 days -- notice Warner's timeline -- were critical to the future of Iraq and that the Iraqi government needs to come to grips with its "internal problems."

"Warner's speech," Durbin said in an interview, "was as clear a signal as this White House will ever get that its loyalists in the Republican Party have lost faith in its strategy."

The growing nervousness in Bush's own party is a reaction to more than just short-term poll numbers. What's most striking and little noticed in the recent surveys is that even among the war's supporters, enthusiasm has waned. Intensity is on the side of the war's opponents.

<snip>

But attacking Democrats who voted with him on the war and now have grave doubts about his policies, as Murtha does, is hardly a way for the president to buy himself maneuvering room in Iraq. It will be difficult for Bush's acolytes to cast Murtha, who has regularly stood up for the military policies of Republican presidents during his 31 years in Congress, as some kind of extreme partisan or hippie protester.

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111701305.html

[cliss]

1. I read last week,

that some really big "insiders" or heavy hitters have soured on the war. They seem to feel there is no hope of any kind of victory in Iraq.

This war is absolutely unwinnable. I'm not sure why they are letting Bush and Cheney get out there and defend their war. Maybe they're letting these two fools swing in the wind.

[bemildred]

2. They still have an interest in preserving the imperial mandate

to go meddle arbitrarily in the affairs of other nations.
Every effort will be made to maintain the notion that it
is still a good thing to do, it's just that this time it
was done incompetently, etc. etc. Hence time is still
needed for the necessary cosmetology (putting lipstick on
the pig), and the Bushites can serve very well as sacrificial
goats in due course.