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I consider the Free Republic to be a relatively legitimate gague of conservative opinion and it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him. The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence. What does this say about the future of this venture and the administration in general? It would seem that should there be additional indefinite delays that the mood does not bode well for this administration.

The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence.

It was the same before Afghanistan. All sorts of dates were thrown out. When it came no one remembered being impatient. What we found was that Bush had given his military the green light to go and it was up to them to pick the exact start time.

It is clear that strategically their is a trade off between waiting for our intelligence to gather as much hard data regarding targets, our troops getting set up along with whatever backup we need and the future weather conditions etc.

Personally, I believe the politics are not dictating our start date at this time. I believe the start date is up to the pentagon as Bush has done before.

I consider the Free Republic to be a relatively legitimate gague of conservative opinion and it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him. The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence. What does this say about the future of this venture and the administration in general? It would seem that should there be additional indefinite delays that the mood does not bode well for this administration.

It is not a matter of "impatience" per se -- I would hope that most of us realize that the military have logistic issues to work out, and we're willing to give them the time they need for this. Our issue is that many of us are becoming dubious about "world opinion", bilateral diplomatic relations with former friends, or the preservation of dysfunctional multi-lateral institutions as being things worth wasting any time on trying to preserve. We've already written these off as the inevitable and unavoidable cost of pursuing our own national interest, and we are growing impatient over the administration's pursuit of what we believe to be futile.

That's right, CC. Saddam, listen to CC and not those other posters. GWB has lost his nerve and wouldn't possibly attack until next month. Stand down your troops, relax, and give them a weekend liberty. Find reasons to delay destroying those rockets and publicly rebuff Blix; show the world you are your own man. Pay no attention to those foolish people telling you an attack is imminent.

The pressure is there that's for sure, while I won't move on the need to remove Saddam many of the more moderate people I know who are NOT anti-Bush and anti-American and were some of the most avid anti-Clintonites I know including a few veterans of the Libyan attack and the Gulf War just don't see an urgency and some a need for war with Iraq. They were convinced that a war was necessary but the delay has them re-thinking that maybe Saddam is bottled up and rendered harmless now. Even if this is wrong thinking the point is that this is what is happening and while they still support Conservatives and Republicans in general they no longer support this administration's drive to war. It is wrong but that's what is happening with some people I know and I can't convince them otherwise. These are good Americans who have strong support for the war on terror but somehow they are no longer convinced that war in Iraq is needed. That tells the story and may not affect things in the long run but support is waning and it's mainly due to the delay, wrong or right.

I consider the Free Republic to be a relatively legitimate gague of conservative opinion and it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him. The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence. What does this say about the future of this venture and the administration in general? It would seem that should there be additional indefinite delays that the mood does not bode well for this administration.

If I had to wait till June that would be okay....as long as there was positive movement. People keep saying "strategery". Well let me tell you, it is not part of the plan to have Turkey vote us down with the 4th's equipment sitting offshore, not part of the plan to have the Pope ask to address the Security Council, not part of the plan to have our guys sit in the desert and have to rearrange tents to pack some more into Kuwait, not part of the plan to have Iranian Revolutionary Guards come across the border, not part of the plan to have the Kurds threaten us, not part of the plan to have a back-bench rebellion on Toni Blair, not part of the plan to have Hungary b*tching about unauthorized overflights, etc.

When you find yourself in a hole...stop digging! We seem to be waiting because things have gotten more complicated, so we wait and they get a little more complicated, necessitating that we wait a little longer.....

If they need to wait for NON-POLITICAL reasons thats fine, but it would be helpful to stop the political hemmorhaging prior to waiting.

p.s. I was a Bush voter and sent cash to the recount fund and will be voting Bush again, but the strategery needs to bear some fruit in the near future.

Does GWB get any of this feedback from us?

"I consider the Free Republic to be a relatively legitimate gague of conservative opinion and it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him. The number of disaffected posts should be taken very seriously as a real indication of waning confidence. What does this say about the future of this venture and the administration in general? It would seem that should there be additional indefinite delays that the mood does not bode well for this administration."

We the public receive the same media reports as Saddam Hussein.

Deception is a fundamental principle of war, and was used extensively in Gulf War 1.

The "what" and the "when" are best kept hidden by confusion and feints, at least in the public arena.

Do you know where the 4th ID is right now? How do you know?

it is clear that Bush's support base is starting to lose patience with him.

All those who are losing patience with him share one thing in common: They are not privy to the information that he sees. I've seen nothing in Bush's performance thus far to indicate that my confidence in him is misplaced, so I will continue to assume the guy with access to the attack strategy, all the intel and all the readiness data knows better than a bunch of DEBKA-powered armchair quarterback wanna-bes...