Ralph Peters: Iraq is more important than a GOP Congress

NY Post columnist Ralph Peters predicts that the Bush Administration will begin drawing down troop strength in Iraq to give Republicans in Congress some political cover in the 2006 elections. This would be dumb, for the reasons Peters ascerbically notes and also because most Republicans are safe, especially in the House, where the Dems would have to win nearly all the few (27/435) contested races to regain control. Moreover, a Speaker Pelosi would put the Democrats' irrational defeatism and anti-Americanism squarely before the voting public for 2008 (when a reverse shift would occur).

The White House's policies should not be determined in any way by the desire to keep Rick Santorum or Lincoln Chafee in the Senate, especially because the Republicans still have a reasonable chance of dumping Democrat seats in Washington, Maryland and Minnesota.