From CounterPunch
By Dave Lindorff

Three articles this weekend suggest that President Bush and his aim-challenged vice president are being abandoned by key elements of their base, and are facing a growing threat of impeachment.

In the New York Times Sunday Book Review, Dexter Filkins, one of the best reporters covering the Iraq War, reviewing a new book by former U.S. occupation viceroy L. Paul Bremer, reports on how Bremer says he asked for 40,000 more troops, and got a sympathetic hearing from Gen. Sanchez, who made it clear that he couldn’t get them. The reason: The Bush administration was politically committed to keeping troop levels at no more than 130,000, and reducing them if possible. The article makes it clear that Bremer saw the war and occupation as a failure.

In the current issue of National Review, William Buckley says Bush has to admit that his grand Iraq adventure has been a failure. While one can take issue with Buckley’s conclusion–that the disaster in Iraq shouldn’t mean that the U.S. can’t continue to meddle in other countries around the world–his major point is that for Bush and the U.S. in Iraq, it’s over. For Buckley only challenge remaining is for the president and his administration to admit defeat.

What this means is that Bush has lost both the corporate Republican backing for the war, as represented by Bremer, a fixture of the Wall Street establishment, and the mainstream Conservatives, as represented by Buckley.

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