Perhaps THIS Will Change Your Mind!

President Bush was undeterred when the Bi-partisan Iraq Study Group* told him: "The United States should not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq". He didn't sway when a study sponsored by MIT listed the number of casualties as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq at 655,000. He didn't even change his tune when a multi-agency National Intelligence Estimate declared that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less safe and "has made the overall terrorism problem worse”, but now the President is coming around saying today that he will come to a compromise with Congress on funding the Iraq war and that compromise will include benchmarks.

Why the shift towards compromise? This reporter** thinks it might have something to do with the fact that in a meeting this week, Bush was informed that the GOP believes the war is hurting the Republican party and that he won't be able to count on their support for much longer.

Hundreds of thousands of people dead, a world that is less safe than it was 4 years ago, the Iraqi parliament asking for a timetable for withdrawal, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, but GOD FORBID THIS WAR HURTS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY! Sheesh!

* If you haven't read the Iraq Study Group Report, you should. It is a VERY interesting read.
** I am not a reporter.