Reply #3: It all depends who you are talking about: pundits and civilian Pentagon people

[Mass]

who are now backtracking as quickly as they can IN ORDER TO GET THESE VOTES FOR THE REPUBLICANS and to put the blame on the military,

or the ordinary voter, who happens to be conservative (and not necessarily neocons).

What I am bothered by now is that many of these people who have come out to criticize the conduct of the war are Republican candidates (Steele yesterday on NBC is the most recent example) who are seeing that as a way to be elected. When they will be elected, they will continue to vote for Bush policies (just as Hagel or Snowe did). Allen is too stupid to do that, fortunately, but many, many Republicans candidates are doing that right now, and we can imagine why.