Washington – When Army Gen. David Petraeus last week proposed withdrawing more than 20,000 U.S. troops from Iraq, some congressional Democrats nodded their heads and saw it as a positive, if insufficient, step forward.
Some wanted to take credit. After all, the drawdown, the benchmarks report, even Petraeus’ Capitol Hill testimony came about only because of Democratic pressure.
Within hours, that idea was shot down. When House Democratic leaders convened in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Monday, strategists concluded they were already getting credit for what was happening but that voters wanted much more. So Pelosi, according to aides at the meeting, insisted that Democrats coordinate their message and dictated what that message would be: The general’s plan meant 10 more years of war, or even “endless war.”
Either way, what seems increasingly clear is that Washington will remain locked in an endless war over Iraq – at least until President Bush leaves office in 16 months. The prospect of a grand bipartisan resolution to the extended conflict in Iraq that some hoped September would bring appears more elusive than ever.
“The headline for the last week is that the war is pretty much going to be on a stay- the-course path and clearly is going to be passed on to the next president, and there isn’t going to be an awful lot done in the Congress to change that,” said Leon Panetta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff who served on the Iraq Study Group that tried to forge a bipartisan deal last year.
The political calendar works against any possible war accord between the parties. With presidential primaries barely three months off, Democratic candidates are competing to be more aggressive in confronting Bush and Republicans. Even if they could find a compromise that enough Republicans would accept, it is not clear the candidates would agree to anything but a hard- line position.
So any further changes in war policy before Jan. 20, 2009, seem likely to be up to Bush, who has signaled that he is shifting gradually. The White House said the Petraeus drawdown marks the beginning of a “gradual change in mission,” and Bush suggested in his speech that he hopes to bring more troops home next year beyond the troops sent earlier this year for the buildup.
