Time to come home?

Yesterday the NYT ran a cover story about Obama's need for GOP support in the continuation of the Afghanistan occupation. Perhaps it is an ominous omen then even that support is showing signs of ebbing. One of the higher profile conservative columnists, George Will from the Washington Post, just wrote a column making the case for withdrawal; and just as surprisingly also published this week another column making the case for withdrawal from Iraq. At the same time, former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel writes a column in the same paper, a paper not known for its anti-war stance, highlighting the futility of our efforts to bomb the Middle East to peace. No one realistically should expect this to signal an imminent mass shift of the GOP's commitment to our indefinite involvement in these two countries, but if more unelected conservatives find the sense and/or courage to lose the strong on national security schtick and accept the wisdom of disengagement it is definitely an encouraging step in the direction of hastening the day of withdrawal. I thought Will's Iraq piece was especially well written, and while it would have been better had it appeared 5 years ago, it's better late than never.