From The New York Times:

White House Debate Rises on Iraq Pullback

White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities….

From Reuters:

W.House denies debating troop withdrawal

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has no plans to withdraw troops from Iraq now, the White House said on Monday, despite increasing pressure from members of his own Republican party for a change in war strategy.

The New York Times reported on Monday that debate was intensifying inside the White House over whether Bush should try to prevent more Republican defections by announcing intentions for a gradual withdrawal of troops from high-casualty Iraqi areas.

“There is no debate right now on withdrawing forces right now from Iraq,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said…

Hmm. I guess the important question is this: In this time of war, should we be debating whether the White House is debating pulling out of Iraq? Should we even be discussing whether we should be debating that? Let’s talk about it.

Like a lot of people, I’d hope that somewhere within the White House, someone was debating whether or not we’d ought to pull out of Iraq, even with General Petraeus’ big Report not due until September 15. But should they be talking about the fact that they’re debating it? That’s debatable - we don’t want our enemy and our allies to think we’re thinking about pulling out.

Then again, the White House’s choice to say flat-out that they’re not debating it is a questionable strategy. It feels disingenuous at the very least, and if it’s actually true (which is debatable), well, then it’s terrifying. The idea that nobody in that White House is debating whether a pullout should be accelerated is implausible, which makes me wonder how much debate there was around telling Tony Snow to tell the press that there is no debate.

So now, with this Tony Snow statement, what does The New York Times do? Do they debate his dispute with the Times over whether or not there is a debate within the administration?

Because it all comes down to this:  If the Iraqis see us as a nation debating whether the argument between Snow and the Times over whether or not there is debate within the administration over whether we’d ought to pull out of Iraq… does that weaken our allies or embolden our enemies?  Should we even be talking about this?  And does that question go too far?

The lines are open.  Tell me whether they should be.