"Common Ground"

Well it seems that the President is finally going to accept some sort of benchmarks for Iraq. At least that's what's being reported. Because if you don't have any sort of benchmarks for measuring the progress in Iraq what you have is an open ended commitment to Iraq or at least a commitment as long as you are in office. Is this some sort of conversion or finally recognizing the will of the American people. No it comes about because a bunch or Republicans trooped up to the White House to say that the war is hurting the Republican Party.

The important point on the Republican story is the reason for getting concerned about the war. It's not because this administration has botched just about ever phase of it. No it is because:

Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he [Bush] cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

In other words the GOP is covering its ass.

Again September seems to be the magic month for deciding on the success of the surge. The Republican goal is to neutralize Iraq as a campaign issue next year. I cannot see how this is going to be possible. No matter what type of reports come in on the surge in September, Bush is not going to voluntary withdraw troops. And unless Congress has the guts to cut off funding, which is as far as I can see is only going to endanger the troops, the war will continue until there is a new president.