It's become painfully clear that the Bush/Rove war strategy consists of prolonging the agony long enough to find a way to shift the blame from where it belongs on to the Democrats. The strategy has two walls forming the corner the Democrats are stuck in:

--Prolong the war through 2008 to dump it on Bush's Democratic successor. This forms the propaganda basis for an attempt to retroactively blame the entire six-year debacle on Democrats as the new President tries to fix the mess.

--If the Democrats succeed in altering Bush's course before 2008, again, it will form a propaganda premise for retroactively blaming Democrats for six years of Bush's incompetence.

The Democrats see how Rove has neatly boxed them in to a no-win situation. With Rove leading in the dance, the best they can do is step on his toes in protest. Yesterday's capitulation was tactical, after the protest had been registered.

Meanwhile, people are dying to protect Bush's "legacy" and Republican political power. Words cannot describe how reprehensible a strategy Bush/Rove are pursuing.

Democrats aren't coming out of it covered in glory either. They too are paying attention to their reputation and political fortunes, at a time when perhaps honor and patriotism require standing up to the political bullying and taking whatever propaganda hits the Republicans dish out. But that's a fine line to walk, because sacrificing political prospects translates into the risk of allowing Republicans to remain in power and continue to damage American national interests. A politician who fails to get elected because he/she stands on a point of principle gives up the chance to ever translate those principles into action. It may gratify the soul to be so publicly righteous, but it's essentially moral masturbation for all the good it does.

I don't know the answer. Once again Bush/Rove has created a mess that may well be beyond human capacity to fix. You must be so proud of your Glorious Leader's cleverness.