Benchmarks come and benchmarks go but the war goes on forever

At least, that's the way it looks, as the Iraqi government fails to meet the benchmarks Congress put into the spending bill they passed after the president vetoed the original (49 Democratic senators cannot override a veto).

Dan Froomkin quotes retired Lt. General William Odom who writes for NiemanWatchdog.org that Bush is not in any mood to compromise:

"The president is strongly motivated to string out the war until he leaves office, in order to avoid taking responsibility for the defeat he has caused and persisted in making greater each year for more than three years.

"To force him to begin a withdrawal before then, the first step should be to rally the public by providing an honest and candid definition of what 'supporting the troops' really means and pointing out who is and who is not supporting our troops at war. The next step should be a flat refusal to appropriate money for to be used in Iraq for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion.

"The final step should be to put that president on notice that if ignores this legislative action and tries to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril, impeachment proceeding will proceed in the House of Representatives. Such presidential behavior surely would constitute the 'high crime' of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest."

I think it's pretty clear that Odom's dead on target. Bush has no intention of leaving Iraq while he's in office. Whatever happens after he leaves he can blame on his successor and claim "It's not my fault!"

So - honestly now, don't we all know it? - he has to leave now.