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I'm reminded of the generals of World War I - both sides - who threw battalion after battalion into the grinder, believing that "the next offensive" (read "surge") would decide the war. Fact is, the utter exhaustion of that generation's supply of able young men is what decided it. Today's generals are nothing like the butchers of 1914, let me be very clear about that, and I can't imagine that a single one of them truly believes that military success is possible in Iraq at this point. But they are stuck being directed by a Commander in Chief who does not seem to understand what a grinder Iraq has become in its own right, and that the only result of continuing the military "adventure" will be to exhaust, if not the supply of young men per se, then certainly the patience and spirit of the nation that can't see any real gain for the losses.
Let Bush veto this bill. Let him now take this action that will forever define his presidency. No pocket veto, no signing statement, no whining about "troop support" will enable him and his associates to dodge the consequences of that willful folly.
