No one should doubt that George Bush is banking his entire legacy on Iraq.

Bush has hardly surrendered his effort to broadly define the commander in chief's authority to wage war in the modern era. Just last weekend, he and Vice President Cheney told Congress that it has no business trying to stop the president from sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq. But in other ways, Bush has engaged in a series of strategic fallbacks intended to preserve what authority he can while fending off escalating political and constitutional challenges.

"You can only be at odds with two-thirds of the people on a limited number of issues," said Jack Quinn, who was White House counsel under President Bill Clinton. "He has his back to the wall. He really has depleted his political capital and he simply can't afford to be at odds with most of us on a number of issues. He is conserving what limited political capital he has to see through this final effort on which he's embarked in Iraq."

This is precisely why the monarchists in the Bush Administration hate the American system of government. Bush shouldn't have to balance the constraints on power built into the Constitution with their lust for absolutist authority. Not that they are, of course. But in their minds they shouldn't have to make a dishonest and disingenuous and completely cynical non-retreat.

Supposing the surge actually works (stop laughing, I'm making a point): if this is about retreat in order to regroup political capital, which can only be retrieved by some perception of success in Iraq, consider what steps Bushco will take to ensure they never have to retreat again. Consider Dick Cheney, consider George Bush: will this experience humble them before the Constitution or exponentially ratify their determination to supersede it?

Exactly. They're going all in on Iraq. If faking a concession buys some good time while they get Iraq right, all fine to them; once the enemy there is defeated, then turn on the enemy at home. Not that they've un-turned.

Hence the moral dilemma for us, yes?

Actually, no.