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The president is having a hard timing keeping his own party from the exits for the final act.

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Margaret Carlson makes a conventional observation in Bloomberg that "Bush went general-shopping to
come up with one who would agree with him".

Bush isn't the only customer at the general store.  Lincoln bought and sold several generals. According to Kingfish historian, T. Harry Williams, "Lincoln had to personally reorient even Grant's objectives".

I will grant that our friend Mencken is more Mencken than Bush is Lincoln.  But Bush has made a change in strategy.  Daniel Henninger takes a serious look at the Petraeus plan in today's WSJ.

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"Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told ABC's This Week that he could back a brief increase in forces if "it's part of a program to get us out of there." - USA Today, Dec 17, 2006

“Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and
stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain,” Mrs.
Pelosi and Mr. Reid wrote in a letter to Mr. Bush. “We are well past
the point of more troops for Iraq,” they added, urging Mr. Bush to
begin a “phased redeployment,” or gradual withdrawal." -New York Times, Jan 5, 2007

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This is not an obit cartoon.  It's an enabler cartoon.

A memo recently declassified by the U.S. State Department reveals that Arafat was involved in the  murder of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel on March  4, 1973.

The Jerusalem Post has the story.

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Other than the jeering witnesses with those pesky cellphone cameras, nobody seemed happy about the way he went.  Not even a  Hitchins or a Krauthammer.  Even those on the angry left who wish the same for Bush, however, think Saddam got what he deserved.

Me? Just another obit cartoon.

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Bush seems to support a surge in troop levels.  Even Harry Reid is cool with the idea. 

The president seemed jolted by a surge of his own, however, when a reporter asked him if he would override advice from his generals on the subject.

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'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me.'  - Bush to key Republicans according to Bob Woodward in his book "State of Denial".

Here's an interesting take on American ambivalence about Iraq by Shelby Steele in the Wall Street Journal .

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Colin Powell told Bush an invasion of Iraq would be under Pottery Barn rules: you break it you own it.  It turns out Pottery Barn has no such rule.  It probably doesn't have wmd either.

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Jim Baker has advised President Bush on asking Iraqis to carry the load before. In 1991 Bush 41 encouraged the Iraqi Shiites to overthrow Saddam Hussein.  They took him up on it and when Saddam responded with helicopter gunships the Americans refused their pleas for help.  100,000 Shiites were killed.

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James Baker's study group leaked its homework.

The bipartisan Iraq
Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units
from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise
and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of
U.S. forces, sources familiar with the proposal said yesterday.