How long will ameri-ca's commitment to its Iraq mission last? In the year since the U.S. invasion, that question has received little scrutiny. For Republicans and most Democrats, the mantra has been simple: "Stay the course." With Saddam Hussein in jail and Iraq's potential as a haven for weapons of mass destruction neutralized, both parties willingly backed an open-ended troop commitment to install a stable, democratic government in Baghdad and, in Bush Administration dreams, throughout the Islamic world. Now that consensus is cracking. While White House and Pentagon officials show no sign of wavering, lawmakers and foreign policy experts are starting to debate whether the Bush team's poorly managed war effort can achieve its goals-or whether those hopes would be out of reach for even a sawier operation. "We have to either mobilize or get out," Representative John Murtha (Pa.)-one of the most hawkish Democrats on the Hilltold a May 6 news conference. "I don't know that we have the will to mobilize."
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