Is Senator Warner’s proposal to “redeploy” 5,000 troops by the end of 2007 meaningful? Or is it an early salvo in a cleverly designed rear-guard action by a desperate retreating army? The latter.

The Republicans are desperate for a strategy, any strategy, that might offer them a ray of hope for 2008. At this point it seems that only a miracle would give them the House, but they might hope to take the Senate, or at least keep it in its current state of impotence. But you know the litany of troubles they’ve seen. Not just the fact that two-thirds of the Senators up for re-election in 2008 are Republicans. And not just the incompetence, the lies, or even the corruption. Sure, it hurts that so many Republicans are going to jail, but they’ll have replacements soon enough.

The big problem right now is, they look like losers. They lied to get their war, then they lost it.

Now they’re scrambling for rheotorical cover for the firefight of the next election. If they bring the troops home, obviously the best solution in political as well as national-security terms, they’ll have started and lost the war single-handedly, and even some of their core supporters will join in the pounding they get at the polls.

On the other hand, three-quarters of the population has already realized that withdrawal, now or soon, is the only choice, and that Staying the Course is simply killing people for political (and for Cheney-friendly corporations, financial) gain.

They need a Third Way.

Thus the Slow Withdrawal, changing course in a measurable but insignificant way. Party leaders are said to have let the White House know quite clearly that Republican support in Congress for staying the course would be gone by September absent a miracle in Iraq. They supposedly recommended a drawdown executed very slowly, giving the impression of doing something while ensuring there’s a war to hand to the next President.

Perhaps they figure they can recruit 5,000 mercenaries by the time Christmas rolls around, effectively doubling the cost while eliminating any shred of accountability. Halliburton et. al. would love that, eh?