What to do about the war in Iraq has the Republican presidential candidates tied in knots. They don’t want to get out, they don’t dare say to go in deeper and the surge isn’t working. So Republican policy boils down to three unstated words: Wait and Hope.

Imagine this: A presidential candidate says, “Look, we’re whipped and we can’t straighten out this mess to get un-whipped. Let’s get out.” He may be the voice of logic but a lot of Republicans don’t like that idea, and the image of American soldiers coming out of Baghdad on the skids of helicopters – as they did in Saigon – could create a lethal political backlash.

Or, a candidate could go in the opposite direction and say, “Let’s face the hard facts. We should have sent half a million men to Iraq and didn’t and the cold hard truth is we aren’t going to win until we do. So, let’s do it and get it over with.” That may be telling the cold hard truth but it also means an instant political lynching.

So, caught between a rock and a hard place, not anxious to take either risk, the Republican candidates are stuck with Wait and Hope, which they know – as far as the 2008 elections go – doesn’t sound any more promising than “Stay the Course.”

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