This Republican war

Not even a relatively mild proposal to give our troops more rest at home before recycling them into this futile war in Iraq could break the GOP roadblock in the US Senate. WaPo reports:

The vote offered the most vivid evidence yet that the Bush administration still controls Iraq war policy, despite months of congressional debate, the war's persistent unpopularity and a summer-long effort by activists to pressure Republicans. Unless other options with broad appeal emerge soon -- a prospect both parties now say is unlikely -- Bush's plan to keep most troops in Iraq through next summer will remain intact.

"Our Republican colleagues are more interested in protecting our president than our troops," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said moments before the vote, when defeat appeared certain. "This is Bush's war. Don't make it also the Republican senators' war."

From the NYT report:

“It means that Congress will not intervene in the foreseeable future,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, the Independent who has voted with the Republicans on war issues. “The fact that it didn’t get enough votes says that Congress doesn’t have the votes to stop this strategy of success from going forward.”

And:

After the vote, a dejected Mr. Webb said: “You are seeing, as of a week ago, the administration and some of the leading Republicans in here talking about, ‘Hey it’s O.K. that we’re going to be in Iraq for the next 50 years.’ I don’t think it is O.K.”

He continued: “And so we are going to have this debate. It is going to be a long and emotional debate, long meaning in months and perhaps years.”

You know, I'm hopeful that it won't be. And I'm hopeful because USA Today/Gallup finds that more than half the country believes our troops should be withdrawn, and two-thirds believe we can't win there. The new Pew Center poll released yesterday finds that the Petraeus testimony did not move public opinion, and that just over half of Americans want our troops out now -- a significant increase over the Gallup numbers. I'm not sure how to explain the discrepancy, but nevertheless, it's clear where a majority of the American people are on this war. And it is crystal clear that the problem is the president and Congressional Republicans.

The answer is Election Day, 2008. The Republicans are taking their stand around Bush and this failed war, and they're not going to give an inch. You can call that noble if you like, and I suppose if you support the war, still, you will. But I think we can all agree that next fall is going to be a mighty reckoning for the Republican Party, for its president and its legislators own this war.