Keep on keepin' on

Two items of interest:

- According to a new Gallup poll, about 30% of Americans are saying "Out Now! of Iraq - and another 30% are saying some of the troops should be withdrawn now. It's the strongest support yet for withdrawal. Meanwhile, 56% say they would be upset if more troops are sent and a roughly equal percentage say the war was not worth fighting, a figure reflected in an ABC-Washington Post poll, taken, like the Gallup one, in early June.

- Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) is a solid conservative who supported the invasion of Iraq (and was responsible for "freedom fries" replacing "French fries" on the Capitol cafeteria menu) but has become probably its biggest critic among GOPpers. On Sunday he said "we've done about as much as we can do" in stating his intention to introduce legislation calling for a timetable for withdrawal.

"When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed - it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded - and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there," Jones said on ABC's "This Week."

The ranks of the dissenters, even among the GOP, are growing. I said it recently: Slowly, painfully, with too much blood shed and too many lives lost and too much hatred generated, but still, slowly - we are winning.