Legends of the Fall

Those of us disappointed by the reality of September and the absence of any substantial change to the Iraqi situation it has brought with it might want to go back and relive the legend of "September will change everything," which blossomed for a brief, optimistic moment in late spring and early summer. Atrios has been doing yeoman's service over the last couple of days in collecting the literature of this period in our national politics. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said that Bush's strategy had better show "significant success" before the fall or "Congress should consider . . . a gradual but significant withdrawal of our troops next year." (She voted to stay the course this week.) Moderate Republicans told the Prez in May that they'd "desert" him in the fall if conditions didn't improve. (They didn't.) General George Pace stated that if conditions in Baghdad improved by fall, troops would be withdrawn. (Although the Prez and General Petraeus insist that things are going great, no troops are on their way home.) Tom Friedman reported that General Petraeus said he would know by "late summer" whether his strategy for Iraq would work and claimed that he had "an obligation" to the troops to change things if it didn't. Further, Friedman vowed to "hold him to those words" so that "Mr. Bush is not allowed to drag the war out until the end of his term, and then leave it for his successor to unwind." (Friedman, or anyone else for that matter, is welcome to start holding him to those words at any time.) Joe Lieberman called for a "truce" in Washington bickering until "the end of summer," when we'd be able to tell whether the strategy was working. (Lieberman is apparently ready for Washington to become a free-fire zone of criticism against the administration's war. He's welcome to join in the criticism whenever he's ready. Presumably that'll be sometime after his vote this week to stay the course.) Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott and House Minority Leader John Boehner said that the Republicans could be patient for only so long and would need to see "some significant changes on the ground" by fall in order to continue supporting the war. (No significant changes, but continued Republican support.) And all in one massive post, Atrios reminds us of how several months ago David Broder, Frank Rich, Joe Klein, and David Ignatius insisted that everything would be different in September. (Guess what? It's not.)

It's almost enough to make us pine for those wondrous days when September seemed so bright.