September song

[lwcon]

It's a long, long while from May:

Congressional leaders from both political parties are giving President Bush a matter of months to prove that the Iraq war effort has turned a corner, with September looking increasingly like a decisive deadline.

In that month, political pressures in Washington will dovetail with the military timeline in Baghdad. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, has said that by then he will have a handle on whether the current troop increase is having any impact on political reconciliation between Iraq's warring factions. And fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1, will almost certainly begin with Congress placing tough new strings on war funding.

"Many of my Republican colleagues have been promised they will get a straight story on the surge by September," said Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.). "I won't be the only Republican, or one of two Republicans, demanding a change in our disposition of troops in Iraq at that point. That is very clear to me."

Naturally, the Repubs will be refilling their Friedman Unit prescriptions in the sapphire month, and who could blame them?

This war is "the defining struggle of our time," so there are no circumstances under which we could walk away from it, right?

Besides, if there's one thing we know about the Republicans, it's that they support our troops.

If you're unfamiliar with that phrase, it means "refusing to let them come home." It's meant precisely that for the last four years, and presumably it wouldn't change over political opportunism, would it?

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"