Further Thoughts on Bush and Iraq

Cal Thomas echoes President Bush's desire that we give Gen. Petraeus a chance to turn the war in Iraq around, in his latest article. He also repeats Bush's contention that now that we are in Iraq we have to win.

. . . the political season has begun and between Democratic politicians who are conducting their own insurgency against a weakened president - a president they have helped weaken by their non-support of the war effort - and a few Republican politicians whose only interest seems to be not the establishment of a stable Iraq, but the preservation of their jobs - reasonableness has become a casualty of this struggle.

One minor correction - the Political Season is pretty well constant.

Thomas urges the President to open a surge of rhetoric against his political enemies, to show the American people the consequences of failure in Iraq. Perhaps President Bush should have considered the consequences of failure a bit more before invading.

For a contrasting view, let's check out Matt Towery's latest article about the effect of President Bush's intransigence in Iraq on the Republican Party.

This White House simply will not admit that their plan for stabilizing Iraq has failed. Tap-dancing around the inevitable for another year likely will accomplish nothing more than politically weakening or destroying the very people who have been the most supportive of our military, and of the fight against terrorism.

But don't take my word for it. Ask the stream of strategists and veteran staff who are bailing out of Sen. John McCain's foundering campaign.

I maintain now what I always have: First, that George W. Bush is a decent, honorable human being. Second, that he has been catastrophically undermined and misled by various advisers and staff, to say nothing of Dick Cheney. Their collective attitude has been "the public be damned." Well, now the public "damns" the president in return. According to one national survey this week, Bush has a 26 percent approval rating.

Oy. That doesn't sound good does it? So should President continue, full steam ahead? Or should he admit his error and let the Republican Party work with Democrats to correct his errors?

The first option is more likely, regardless of what the right answer is.