Better Start Swimming Or You'll Sink Like A Stone

The political tide is definitely turning against Bush's war in a major way... more and more Republicans are speaking out about it with an eye on the elections, 2006 and beyond.

I remember that starting a year ago, around the time that people like Rep. Murtha began asking for withdrawals, that panicked Republicans began trying to dissuade Democrats from this path, purporting to advise them that criticizing this awesome war would translate badly to voters (even though voters were ahead of the Democrats in wanting withdrawals and change). Case in point: The slew of high-ranking Republicans (like the Vice President) in August giving 'advice' to Democrats to stay away from the war as a political issue. Democrats have mostly stood their ground and- short of a Diebold fiasco- look poised to reap the political benefits of an angry populace tired of staying Bush's course. Seeing this, many top-level Republicans are now saying out loud what they have likely been thinking privately for some time-- that this war was a colossal mistake and we need to start getting the hell outta Dodge.

AP: 2 GOP senators urge new Iraq strategy

Two leading Republican senators called Sunday for a new strategy in Iraq, saying the situation in getting worse and leaving the United States with few options.

Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and John Warner of Virginia are part of the growing list of Republicans who are speaking out against President Bush's current plan for Iraq as U.S. casualties rise.

"The American people are not going to continue to support, sustain a policy that puts American troops in the middle of a civil war," Hagel said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Hagel said he agreed with Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said after a recent visit to Iraq that Iraq was "drifting sideways." Warner has urged consideration of a change of course if the Iraq government fails to restore order over the next two months or three months....

[Blueduck's note: Yea, I'm sure the next two months will really turn this war around...]

..."We need to find a new strategy, a way out of Iraq, because the entire Middle East is more combustible than it's been probably since 1948, and more dangerous," Hagel said. "And we're in the middle of it."

Democrats long have urged a change in Iraq policy. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said there is "no military solution to this conflict" and the United States must pressure Iraqis to take over their country.

"If they're going to have a civil war, they're going to have to do it without us," Levin said on CNN. "This is long overdue. We've got to focus Iraqi leadership attention on this by telling them we need to begin a phased redeployment of American troops from Iraq within the next few months."

Also Sunday, Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran who favors withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, criticized Republicans for referring to him and other war opponents as "Defeatocrats."...

..."It's all baseless name-calling, and it's all wrong," wrote Murtha, D-Pa. "Unless, of course, being a Defeatocrat means taking a good hard look at the administration's Iraq policy and determining that it's a failure.

"In that case, count me in. Because Democrats recognize that we're headed for a far greater disaster in Iraq if we don't change course — and soon. This is not defeatism. This is realism."...

^ What he said.

I think Salon's Tim Grieve said it best in August: "The case for withdrawal is pretty simple: We shouldn't have invaded Iraq in the first place, and the cost of staying there -- in lives, in money, in the lost opportunities to deal with Osama bin Laden or Iran or North Korea -- far exceeds whatever marginal benefit there may be in staying the course, which is serving mostly to make Americans a target and create a dangerous sort of codependency on the part of the Iraqi government and its fledgling security forces."

The next few weeks will be rough, but I will remain optimistic. The grownups may soon be back in charge.

UPDATE: President Bush to Iraqi Prime Minister: I'll never leave Iraq.

[PS- The U.S. death toll so far this month alone is at least 53.

The Iraqi death toll? You don't wanna know.]