Friday, May 11, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.
P resident Bush took a baby step Thursday toward a compromise with the Democratic majority in Congress over his stance on funding for the Iraq war.
After months of demanding a "clean" war-funding bill, one that just hands him tens of billions of dollars without any accountability either from him or Iraqi government officials, Bush finally agreed that setting some benchmarks for progress is a good idea.
Yet we do not believe for a moment that Bush is beginning to understand that his conduct of the war has been atrocious. Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq during 2004 and 2005, this week called Bush's strategy there "a slow grind to nowhere."
That is one of the most accurate descriptions of Bush's war leadership that we've heard. But Bush himself has always strongly asserted that what others see as Iraq's descent into murderous chaos is just a young democracy finding its way along the trail that he is stoutly blazing.
The only difference now, and what prompted his statement on benchmarks, is that his base in Congress is beginning to crack. On Tuesday, 11 House Republicans met with Bush at the White House.
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., one of the 11, said on CNN, "Members really told the president in, I think the most unvarnished way that they possibly could, that things have got to change ... "
Of course, Republicans in Congress are looking ahead to the 2008 elections and seeing their chances for success diminishing in proportion to their support for Bush. But no matter their motive, Bush is suddenly feeling pressure from his party.
But even that will go only so far. Benchmarks for the Iraqi government, such as constitutional reforms that could ease sectarian tensions, will not work without teeth, such as timetables for troop withdrawals. Bush on May 1 vetoed a war-funding bill that contained timetables and vowed Thursday he would again veto any bill that goes that far.
As we see it, the only hope for a real change in war policy while Bush is in office is for more members of his party to show some courage and call for change - now, without waiting for elections to draw nearer or waiting for more death and destruction in Iraq.
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