No Support

The voices calling for a surge of troops in Iraq have now become a whisper. Senators McCain, Graham, and Lieberman, and their friends at the Weekly Standard, have become extremely isolated in their support of more troops.

It seems that this cabal has been soundly defeated intellectually (despite the lack of a better plan). More importantly, the political head wind is enormous. The opposition from Democrats will be ferocious, support from moderate Republicans is non-existent (Collins), and ardent supporters are defecting (Coleman, Smith). Republicans cannot continue to support an effort that the American people clearly do not support if they want to hold the seats they currently have. The publics weak support and patience will drop further after Indictment January kicks-off.

The problem is that one man, who isn’t up for reelection, will be making the decision against a congress that does not have the fortitude (at least not yet) to cut off funding.