George Still Doesn't Get It

I'll post my own thoughts on the President's speech tomorrow. In the mean time, as the evening draws to a close, here are a few select post-speech comments from someone who backed George W. Bush in the 2000 election, and strongly backed him as the Iraq War was getting under way, but has since lost all faith in the President's competence:

21,500 U.S. troops is once again, I fear, just enough troops to lose. The only leverage this president really has left is the looming regional war that withdrawal would bring. Yes, if we leave, the civil war will take off. And if we stay, with this level of troops, the civil war will also take off. One way, we get enmeshed in the brutal civil war in the region. One way, we get to face them another day, and perhaps benefit by setting them against each other, and destabilizing Iran. That's the awful choice this president has brought us to. Under these circumstances, I favor withdrawal, while of course, hoping that a miracle could take place. But make no mistake: a miracle is what this president needs. And a miracle is what we will now have to pray for.

He will do what he wants, of course...Even if the casualties mount, and the civil war intensifies...

To back [this plan] requires us to trust this president as a competent, deft and determined leader. Do you? Can you? At this point? After all we have seen?

-Andrew Sullivan, who now favors withdrawal.