Chinks in the Armor

I think Sen. John Warner screwed up the united front the Republican Party needed on Iraq going into the election. In addition, he handed Jim Webb a major rhetorical victory in his own state as he tries to upend Sen. Macaca. Of course, he's giving it a couple months for a turnaround, because 3 1/2 years of proof is not quite enough.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday offered a stark assessment of the situation in Iraq after a trip there this week, saying that parts of the country have taken "steps backwards" and that the United States is at risk of losing the campaign to control an increasingly violent Baghdad [...]

Echoing the sentiments of several leading Democrats on his committee, Warner said he believes the United States may have to reevaluate its approach in Iraq if the situation does not improve dramatically over the next several months.

"I assure you, in two or three months, if this thing hasn't come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it's a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take?" Warner said. "And I wouldn't take off the table any option at this time."

But even a hedge like "we'll give it two or three months," which we've all heard umpteen times over the last several years, was not enough to jitter the White House. Because, with the news so bad, with reports of 4,000 Iraqi policemen dying the last two years, with a Kurdish member of Parliament kidnapped and killed, with more details reports of murder and madness in an increasingly chaotic country, any wavering from that party line of "stay the course" is bound to fray some nerves.

The LA Times put on its front page an incredible story today, a chronicle of the various different conflicts happening simultaneously in Iraq, with US troops doing nothing but being caught in the crossfire.



This is far too complex a situation for even the most experienced and strategic of military machines, let alone a bungling group of neocons that think they can overrun a country and set it up with a government within a few weeks.

You can talk until you're blue in the face about what so-and-so knew about which page and on and on, but the midterms will be won and lost on the issue of Iraq. And there is no value in letting the group that unnecessarily got us into this mess to be the ones who try to get us out of it. I think Warner just got off the script a bit. There's no doubt that Iraq is a failed state and that staying there isn't helping. I'd suggest that even most officials in the White House know that. But they don't want that to get out before November because the idea is to keep that united front, not to admit weakness, and to make ludicrous claims like "the terrorists in Iraq will follow us to your bedroom." But they don't have to admit defeat. Most people already know what the score is.