Another conservative icon gave up the fight this week. William Buckley’s column (http://tinyurl.com/2rhpba ) details the Waning of the GOP. His column opens up clear enough:

The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended -- wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal.

Buckley then goes on and paraphrases the bulk of retired DCI George Tenet’s memoir, in which Tenet accuses the President and Vice President of not heeding his advice:

It isn't that Tenet now doubts the lethality of the terrorists. What he disputed was an organizational connection, which argued for war against Iraq as if Iraq were a vassal state of al-Qaida.

For Buckley, unlike Bruce Bartlett, there is no questioning the right of the US in conducting the war, but he does conclude that the White House didn’t do the proper due-diligence, and as a consequence did not anticipate the true nature of the enemy. Like Senator Reid, Buckley believes we are in a war cannot possibly win

But beyond affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going to do? It is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq…It was four years ago that Mr. Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a "surge" of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease?

Well, there is plenty. It has taken the President 4 years to realize what is at stake, and demand results from his field commanders. The elevation of General Petraeus to top commander in Iraq was vital. General Petraeus is one of the few senior officers in the Army that actually studied insurgency from both a historical perspective and operational one. The French fought against an eerily similar kind of insurgency in Algeria 50 years ago. Their success in defeating the insurgency was due to the techniques and tactics of a Lieutenant Colonel Gaula. General Jacques Massu applied Gaula’s strategy through out Algeria in general and Algiers in particular. Within 2 years, the insurgency was defeated. General Petraeus is duplicating Gaula and Massu’s efforts now. Some have dubbed this tactic as strike and hold. Thus far, Petraeus has been able to pacify the Anbar province and break up Al Sadr’s militia.

Buckley appears to be have been as shaken as anyone over the political losses the GOP suffered last year. I imagine his frustration over the President’s performance concerning all things conservative has reached some limit. I will grant him that. At this juncture, politics need to be avoided. In the winter of 1945 through June 1945, the US suffered almost half of it’s loses in World War Two. Iwo Jima, the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge, and Okinawa extracted over 350,000 killed, wounded, and missing. Yet, I don’t remember the GOP Senate Majority Leader demanding FDR’s scalp. Victory overshadowed the great loses of 1945. The problem for the President is that the Democrats want defeat in Iraq as much as the Mullah’s in Tehran. The problem for the President is that he is fighting a proxy war in Iraq against both Iran and the DNC.

The stakes are high. Not only the future of Iraq, but the future of the entire Gulf region is hanging in balance. Wars are not usually won –they are lost. The political future of the GOP will be the least of our worries if we fail in Iraq. Buckley, a man in his 80s should realize that.