You'll begin?

So sayeth John Boehner (R - Cracklyvania):

The leader of House Republicans said today that his members would begin to seek another strategy in Iraq in September, should President Bush's troop "surge" strategy clearly not be working by then.

Now call me crazy, but when undertaking something as massive as, say, a war, shouldn't a Plan B have been thought out well in advance? Along with, say, a Plan C, D, E, F...? You know, basic contingency planning that should have been done for something as unpredictable and fluid as a counter-insurgency campaign?

Well, I suppose I should be thankful that in September, the GOP has at least tentatively planned on joining the reality that the rest of the world acknowledges, right?

But he pledged that his caucus would stand firm against any Democratic timetable or benchmarks that mandate the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

[...]

[Boehner] emphasized: "We [will] want a clean bill. We don't want artificial deadlines. We don't want handcuffs on our generals. We don't want artificial measures in there to try to ensure failure. Iraq is very important. And we need to win in Iraq."

Oh shit.