Other bloggers are pretty upset with these Senate resolutions as they appear to undermine support in Bush and the war. The GOP senators probably feel it is no big deal but the Dems and MSM realize these resolutions can be spun to hurt Bush.

AWW:

Not withdrawing in '03 was a mistake--the Senate isn't obligated to keep going along with a mistaken policy. If Mr. Bush just reads one of his own speeches he'll see that we invaded in order to be able to leave.

OJ - agree. But what the Senate resolutions appear to do is order Bush to pull out in '06. He may have been planning to do it anyway but it gives the appearance that the Senate, particularly the Dems, are ordering the president around.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the message that I've been getting by 'reading between the lines' is that we've long been planning to begin the Iraq drawdown with the next troop rotation (March, I believe). I'm presuming that the National Guard troops returning to the US won't be replaced by additional NG troops.

Oddly, that probably won't result in an immediate drop in casualties for us. Our troops are heavily committed to the dangerous western region of Iraq while the Iraqi security forces continue to expand, develop, and train. I'm assuming it will be about a year until the Iraqi forces are up to snuff.

Oh, and 'snuff' might be exactly what the Kurds and Shia's will do the Sunnis once we leave. Really, the Sunni have been behaving in a suicidal manner.

Patrick: The Ba'athist insurgency seems to be dying down. What we're seeing is mostly the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq. This is the bind that Zarqawi is in. On the one hand, the Ba'athists want to keep attacking the Shi'a and, if the insurgeny is not going to keep attacking the Shi'a, the Ba'athists aren't interested. On the other hand, attacking the Shi'a undercuts support for Al Qaeda throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, which is why he's been ordered to stop.

How could Bush have let things get so out of hand? Republican senators and not just the known RINOs, proposing counter-measures and voting against Bush's initiatives? Unbelievable.

I must continue to believe there's a grand strategy and it's playing itself out just as Bush/Rove intended because I can't bear to think that it'll soon be business as usual with the Democrats back in power and our foreign policy back in Kofi's hands.

I agree with OJ that we should start withdrawing troops as "requested" by the Iraq government.

Having said that, the President should veto this bill, it is a surrender of his constitutional powers to conduct the war. If the veto is overridden, he should simply ignore it.

The war is rapidly being won. Al Qaeda is rapidly being destroyed. The new, democratic government is becoming more and more successful.

Therefore, every politician in Washington now wants to get as much credit as possible for bringing the war to success. The Democrats want to say, "Bush was never going to win the war, but we pushed him to win it quickly, and thanks to our pushing, he did it." They don't want to be seen as do-nothing critics.

This is a de facto acknowledgement of the soundness of Bush's strategy, without any embarrassing overt admissions.

Aww:

If you don't lead you follow.

oj - It's too late for Bush to lead with a "Withdraw, withdraw!" program. If he goes public with that, he'll be seen as a follower. Rather, he can just continue with his own strategy, much proclaimed, of drawing down troops as milestones in training Iraqi troops are met, and when it succeeds say smile at the critics and let his supporters say "We told you so."

pj:

Pshaw--he joined the call for a Homeland Security Department even later and got all the credit.

Will we be able to pump all of their oil out of the ground in two years?

Trolls, Bless their little hearts, are so droll. Of course we can pump out all their oil in two years. Why do you ask?

PJ's 12:28 post is spot on.

And actually, the Dems in congress embrace of the moonbat talking point of "Bush lied" is an attempt to get some traction out of Iraq now, since by next summer, in the run-up to the midterms, Iraq will be a dead issue for them.

AllenS is droll - but not a troll.