Honestly, I don't think it would be impossible for anyone to suddenly get a change of heart and change their ways. However, if Bush did this it would be a great political stress for him, and even if he felt he'd make a mistake, he'd never apologize anyways because the media would make him look like a flip flopper and turn even more people off of his support.
My point is that if he did do this however and started an exit strategy for Iraq, the country could put Iraq behind us and move on. It would look stupid now, but 40 years from now it would look a lot better. Kinda like Ford pardoning Nixon.
Like you said about the Democrats, it would be a mistake to leave now, and I agree. We have a "you break it, you bought it" foreign policy when it comes to intervention. However there should be some kind of an exit strategy and a back up plan (at least one back-up plan) to show that there actually will be an end to this war.
The administration appears to have gone into Iraq without a reasonable exit strategy. Now they have to come up with one, and fast. We can't stay there forever, and we can't just be in this apparently passive mode, taking casualties. It's beginning to sound like Vietnam, where the apparent goal was to stay there and take casualties forever.
Bush needs to tell the American people what proactive steps are being taken to make it possible for us to leave within a reasonable period of time. Iraq is not going to be a Jeffersonian democracy, but we can settle for a reasonable government there that can control the country, keep it together, and not be dominated by terrorists.
Bush also needs to explain to the American people that this is part of a strategy of smoking out the terrorists. Make them come out of hiding so we can kill them there, rather than at home. The more energy they are putting into fighting us in Iraq, the less time they have to plan terrorist strikes in the west.
The administration needs to start explaining its strategy, and convincing people that it will make, and in fact make it work. Some people will never be satisfied; they hate the president so much that they'd rather see the terrorists defeat us. This is reprehensible. I think a lot of people simply don't want to face up to the terrorist threat, and they hate Bush because he forces them to. They'd rather focus their anger on something they have some control over, rather than admit that they can be hurt by forces beyond their control that they're too weak to acknowledge.
But a better explained and thought out policy will win the support of a majority of the American people, and that is what Bush needs now.
Enemies of america have noted that we have two weaknesses, a reluctance to fight a protracted war and an extreme aversion to casualties.
Their stratedgy is to draw out the conflict and continue to inflict casualties no matter how many they suffer themselves (america's enemies have little value of their peoples lives).
The point is that we can stay the course with a will to suceed and defeat the terrorists, or retreat and thereby invite them to continue the conflict in safety.
I suggest you review a book by Sam Griffin on Guerilla War.
Sam was a Marine (he led a battalion at Guadalcanal) and an intellectual (his is the definitive translation of The Art of War by Sun Tzu). His book (published by Stackpole).
Although the media paints a picture of inevitable American loss, the truth is that the terrorists are losing (and they know it), which is why they are pulling out all the stops right now.
